Leaders and Alphas
by ReapingPhant0m
Summary: Five years since the defeat of the Red Death, the people of Berk thrive in their peace with dragons. Little do they know, dark forces gather on the horizon. Hiccup and Draven will have to learn become more than what they are and take their places of leadership if they are to succeed, lest their land and the Archipelago fall to darkness. Rated M for occasional violence.
1. Chapter 1: What lurks beyond

Well, here it is. The long awaited sequel to The Viking Girl and the Hybrid. I said to myself I'd only publish this in March but hey, it's Valentines Day.

In an attempt to try limit my spelling and grammar mistakes that happened because of my speed-typing on a tablet, I have taken the entire movie's transcript (of which I don't own (or HTTYD either)) and I am writing my story around that. Also, quick catch up to newcomers who haven't read my previous story. I didn't take Hiccup's leg off. I just gave her a few bad burns. Also, Draven Mothlyn is my OC who is a human/dragon hybrid (created by another dragon race I created called Wraiths). So without further delay, I hope you guys enjoy the story.

...

The island of Berk, five years after the events of Dragon Island. The best kept secret this side of, well, anywhere. Granted, it may not look like much, but that wet heap of rock packs more than a few surprises. If you look close enough, you will see that it has changed over the years, such as the hanger structure built into the cliff side, a top of the line fire prevention system as well as a massive windmill that powers many things around the village such as the mentioned fire prevention sprinklers.

But why do the people of Berk need such structures? Why only for their pets of course. What kind of pets you ask? Well, let's just say that life there is amazing, just not for the faint of heart like the small group of jittery sheep running from shadow to shadow to hide. You see, where most folks enjoy hobbies like whittling or needlepoint, Berkians prefer a little something they like to call-Dragon Racing.

One sheep that was trying to hide got snatched by a passing Gronckle. A wash of five winged beasts blurs by. Dragons Barrel past at a dizzying speed, their riders swipe, kick, and roll into one another while they weave neck in neck between the houses, docks, and the revamped structures of Berk, trying to catch the highly maneuverable Gronckle and her rider in the tight spaces of the village.

"WHOOOOOOO!" Fishlegs who was now twenty cheered as he and Meatlug held the sheep and were leading the group. His victory was short lived however as the juvenile of the teens, Snotlout, slammed into the side of them with Hookfang, stealing the sheep.

"HO-HO! I'm sorry, Fishlegs! Did you want that?" Snotlout arrogantly gloated with his dragon giving a smug look to the Gronckle and her rider.

Fishlegs glared daggers at his opponent and gave Meatlug a tap to accelerate. It failed however as Hookfang flared his wings and Fishlegs overshot.

"Snotlout! That was mine!" Fishlegs shouted in frustration.

Back with Snotlout, he pulled up alongside Barf and Belch. "Here ya go, babe." Snotlout said with a chivalrous grin as he tossed the sheep to Ruffnut.

"Did I tell you that you look amazing today? 'Cause you do." Snotlout flirted with Ruffnut, hoping that getting her the sheep for the race would have helped.

Feeling somewhat disgusted, Ruffnut rolled her eyes and said to her Zippleback head "Ugh. Come on, Barf. It's starting to stink around here." who in tern began letting out his green gaseous napalm.

Seeing how idiotic Snotlout looked at that moment, Tuffnut came up next to him and mocked "Nope. Still hates you." Turning to his own Zippleback head, he enthusiastically yelled "Let's blow this place, Belch!"

The left head gladly did as told and sparked the trail of gas his brother was leaving, igniting it and blowing Snotlout and Hookfang away from their riders.

As they rushed past the grand stands with all the villagers, Ruffnut tossed the sheep into hers and her brother's basket suspended over a chasm at the lap crossing. The Barf/Belch basket filled to the brim with sheep. Presiding over the game, Stoick turns to the frenzied crowd.

"Ha-ha. That's nine for the Twins, Draven lies with six, Andor lags with three, Fishlegs and Snotlout trail with NONE!" Stoick mentioned as the dragons and their riders moved away from the stands and back into the village.

"And Hiccup is... nowhere to be found. Hmmm." Stoick finished as he eyed the Night Fury basket on the far end.

"Scared her off with the big talk, didn't ya, Stoick?" Gobber commented, standing by his friend.

Back in the air, Snotlout was busy minding himself until he felt two hard whacks over the back of his head. The first being Draven, now 21, atop his Skrill, Violet, and the second being Andor atop Stormfly.

"Hey jackass, have you been flying in the thin air again!?" Draven the human/dragon hybrid scolded.

"What?" Snotlout said, not knowing what Draven meant.

"They're going to win now!" Andor yelled, clearing up the argument.

"She's my princess! Whatever she wants, she gets!" Snotlout replied, having tried to gain the female twin's affection as of late.

"Ruffnut?! Didn't she try to bury you alive?!" Andor asked confusedly.

"Only for a few hours!" Snotlout carelessly replied, not actually getting the hint that Ruffnut wasn't at all interested in him.

While the three riders were arguing, Hookfang looked over to Stormfly on his left. "Hey Stormfly, doing anything later?" the stoker tried to flirt. "Ha, keep dreaming." the spiked dragon replied. Hookfang then looked over to the Skrill on his right and shot her a seductive look."So, Vi...You doing anything later." Hookfang flirted to the dark purple striker.

Rolling her eyes at the arrogant stoker, Violet discharged a small jolt of electricity from her wing into Hookfang, causing him to shudder in flight and fall behind for her to get away.

Seeing as most if not all the painted sheep had been caught, the riders began aimlessly flying around the island waiting for what they knew was coming.

Draven and Violet flew through the dragon hanger, the dragon feeding stations and the grooming stand as they searched for any remaining sheep but more specifically, the black sheep. Speaking of Draven the hybrid, he had actually gain a classification for what he was. Over the years, more and more hybrids began springing up. People who were only exposed to Wraith venom for that infamous nine seconds and had the will to not let the venom take over them. What were they? They were known as Pyro-Typhons.

Back on the grandstands, Stoick leaned over to Gobber and whispered to the blacksmith "It's time, Gobber."

"Righty-ho! Last lap!" Gobber announced to the crowd and gave a wave to another viking at the Thunderdrum-shaped giant horn.

The horn's sound bellowed across the village, alerting the riders of what was coming. "The Black Sheep! Come on, Violet! We can still win this thing!" Draven anxiously said to his dragon as they began to ascend far above the village. They knew that the other riders and their dragons would swarm together to get the black sheep. The Typhon and Skrill however had other plans.

Slowly, a vertical launching slingshot loaded with a black sheep was positioned into the central plaza of the village, with all the riders and their Dravon's scrambling to get their first.

Gobber was operating the launcher as he made his final checks and then said to the sheep "This is your big moment. Have a nice flight!"

Pulling the trigger, the Black Sheep launched high into the air. Andor spots it and steered Stormfly into a steep climb toward it. "Up, up, up, up, up, up!" the blonde viking continuously said to his dragon in a competitive tone of voice.

As they got close, Stormfly opened her talons to grab the sheep, but at the last second in a flash, Fishlegs and Meatlug flew in and nabbed the sheep. "NO!" Andor yelled in frustration. "YES! Good job, Meatlug!" Fishlegs cheered to his boulder dragon.

Moving towards the twins and their Zippleback, Fishlegs tossed to black sheep to Ruffnut. "Here ya go, darling! Mine's worth ten!" Fishlegs said. "Yeah! The Black Sheep!" Ruffnut cheered. If she and her brother bagged the black sheep, they would have won by a long shot.

From high on up, Draven and Violet were having trouble watching what was transpiring during this race. Sure, Snotlout and Fishlegs had hinted at it recently but watching them openly fight about it was something else entirely. "Those guys are fighting for Ruffnut?!" Violet said confusedly.

"Oh, I'm gonna need some therapy after hearing that sentence. Let's finish this." Draven replied. Maneuvering to her above the Zippleback, Draven and Violet prepared to execute their plan.

Back on the Zippleback, the twins were halfway around the village in their lap to get to the finish. "I'm totally winning!" Ruffnut cheered to herself.

"We're winning together!" Fishlegs cheerily said next to Ruffnut. Pulling on her dragon's horns, she rams Barf into Meatlug, sending Fishlegs into an uncontrolled spin. He slammed into Snotlout, sending their dragons tumbling head over tail. The crowd went wild watching the utter carnage of their favourite past time.

"Whoo-hoo! NO ONE CAN STOP ME NOW!" Ruffnut cheered again. Tuffnut however was getting rather annoyed that Ruffnut was the only one between them getting all the sheep.

"Except for me! We're attached, genius! Quit trying to steal all my glory." Tuffnut yelled as he tried to grab the sheep for himself, inciting a tug-of-war.

Draven and Violet watched from above and noticed that Andor and Stormfly were flying just behind the twins, preparing to possibly steal the black sheep. Making their move from high on up, Draven rolled off of Violet into a free fall with the Skrill close behind.

Andor lined Stormfly up to make his move when he and all the spectators noticed that a certain hybrid and his Skrill had other plans.

Violet was just in front of Draven as they aimed for the Zippleback. "Get 'em, Draven!" Stoick yelled out.

The twins however were too busy to notice that with their tug-of-war, they had perfectly lined up the sheep for Draven.

"It's MY glory!"

"Always ruining EVERYTHING!"

"NO SHEEP, NO GLORY!"

The twins continually bickered, until Draven passed right between them, snagging the sheep and landing perfectly on Violet's saddle. "Gotcha! Seeya' suckers!" Draven taunted with a maniacal cackle whilst flipping off is opponents.

"DRAVEN!" Ruffnut and Tuffnut shouted together in frustration, knowing full well they had just lost since there was no chance in hell their dragon could catch a Skrill.

Andor knew he wouldn't be able to catch Draven either, yet he wasn't at all mad. He simply gave a smirk and a approving nod. So long as it wasn't any of the others that won.

Stoick and the crowd all cheered out together in awe of Draven's daring and successful move. "Well played! That's my future son-in-law!" Stoick bellowed with excitement.

Draven and Violet meanwhile were eyeing the fast-approaching finish line, until Fishlegs and Meatlug rammed into their side in an attempt to send them off course. Violet however was able to maintain her composure and stayed in the air, until she and her rider noticed Snotlout and Hookfang dead ahead. "Uh, excuse me!" Snotlout taunted with hammer in hand, intent on taking the sheep from Draven.

Draven was amused to say the least. 'Haven't these idiots learned anything yet?' the Pyro-Typhon thought to himself as Fishlegs and Snotlout moved in.

Since Dragon Racing's only rule was 'get the sheep into the basket by any means necessary', Draven employed his ever growing and strengthening abilities to get past Snotlout, and with Fishlegs and Snotlout cheating to make Ruffnut win, it only seemed fair. Quickly raising his free hand, he gripped and ripped a cloud from the sky, bringing it down like a falling star and blanketing himself in a thick fog. With the cover, Violet rolled sideways and evaded Hookfang.

Snotlout blindly hurled his hammer in the fog and hit not but Fishlegs' face. Even with the fog, the crowd was still able to see what happened and collectively winced in unison.

Draven and Violet emerged from the fog still in possession of the sheep whilst still in their barrel roll. Passing over the finish, Draven tossed the sheep into his basket.

"That's sixteen! Draven takes the game!" Stoick cheered out with joy. Taking the victory lap, Draven flew over the crowd basking in his victory, taking and giving high-fives to the crowd.

Yep. Berk is pretty much perfect. All of Hiccup and Draven's hard work had paid off. And it's a good thing too, because with Vikings on the backs of dragons, the world just got a whole lot bigger.

...

The endless ocean and the boundless sky. Vast. Clear. Crisp. And from it, a Night Fury rockets across the horizon, parting the water from the sheer speed he was flying at. The image of unbridled freedom. Tucked into her riding position, Hiccup and Toothless flew as one. They dipped, rolled and dove, over a sea teeming with Thunderdrums, Seashockers and Scauldrons, pulling off daring maneuvers with honed refinement, making them seem effortless.

"Yeah!" Hiccup cheered out as she switched Toothless' tail up and began ascending into the heavens.

Heading skyward, Toothless and his rider rolled and tumbled through the ethereal cloud-scapes, eventually joining high-flying Timberjacks as they soared in formation. Hiccup was bound head-to-toe in a snug, aerodynamic suit - an asymmetrical, functional design of leather and articulated plates.

Taking in the majestic scenery, Hiccup was eager to try something. "What do ya think, bud? You wanna give this another shot?" she asked her Night Fury with a pat on his side.

"Ugh, that didn't go so well last time." Toothless grumbled in protest. "Toothless! It'll be fine!" Hiccup reassured her dragon with another pat.

With a click of a lever, she locked the pedals in the flared tail position. Hiccup then unhooked herself from the saddle. "Ready?" Hiccup asked her dragon.

Toothless snorted unenthusiastically but was willing to try Hiccup's plan again. Suddenly, Hiccup slid off of Toothless, peeling away from him like a skydiver from a plane, yelling as she plummeted with Toothless close behind. They spiraled through the air, face-to-face, Toothless having fun despite his dislike for Hiccup's idea. Hiccup then slipped her arms through a pair of tucked leather flaps, yanking on them and unfurling sheets of leather as she extended her arms.

They catch the wind, snapping like wings and sending her gliding! Toothless unfolds his wings too, catching up with Hiccup. The freedom is palpable. Hiccup and Toothless were for the moment, the same. Feeling the same rush of adrenaline. Independently together. They plunge past cloud formations, splitting apart then crossing paths again, with Toothless keeping Hiccup in the air with several blasts of plasma, the heat catching in Hiccup's wings and giver her altitude.

"THIS IS AMAZING!" Hiccup yelled out in bliss as she flew. All was going well until a dense cloud formation past, revealing a towering rock formation right in Hiccup's path.

"No longer amazing! TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup shouted for help, seeing as she couldn't steer very well with her wings.

"Hang on, I'm coming!" Toothless yelled as he poured on the speed, trying to catch Hiccup. Unfortunately, with his locked tail, it made his maneuvering difficult. Unable to pull up at a steep enough angle, Toothless blasted the upcoming sea stack and grabbed Hiccup, wrapping her up in his wings for protection.

Getting bast the explosion and sea stack, Toothless tumbled and crashed into several tree on another sea stack and rolled to the ground.

"Ugh, that went well." Toothless sarcastically said as he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Opening his wings, he let Hiccup crawl out of his arms.

"Whoo. That really came out of nowhere." Hiccup joked as she stood up to fold up her wing suit.

Hearing a loud crack, the duo turned around to see the sea stack Toothless shot shatter and crumble into the sea. "That's the second time this week Hiccup!" Toothless grumbled to his rider with some level of annoyance.

"We gotta work on your solo flying there, bud. That, uh, locked-up tail makes for some pretty sloppy rescue maneuvers, eh?" Hiccup said as she finished tying up her wings and removing her helmet. Hiccup kept her hair braided and had it go down her left side in order to hide the burns on her neck from the battle against the Red Death five years earlier.

Taking in the scenery, Hiccup looked out to see a the vast forest and mountain range of a new land. "Oh. Looks like we've found another one, bud." Hiccup said to her dragon in awe. It amazed Hiccup to how she always found new lands. How there just didn't seem to be an end to the world.

Annoyed with his rider, Toothless threw a small pebble at Hiccup's head. Turning around, Hiccup saw Toothless grumbling as he looked the other way. "Oh, what? You want an apology? Is that why you're pouting, big baby boo?" Hiccup said as she approached her dragon.

"Well... try this on!" Hiccup said as she hugged Toothless while also playfully wrestling with him. "Oh, ya feeling it yet? Huh? Picking up on all of my heartfelt remorse?"

Standing on his hind legs, Hiccup hung from Toothless' neck as he walked towards the edge if the sea stack. "Oh, come on, come on. You wouldn't hurt an innocent, slightly singed- AHH!" Hiccup said, until she noticed Toothless dangling her over a 200 meter drop.

"Oh, now you're afraid of falling?" Toothless said with a laugh as Hiccup clung to his neck.

"O-oh, oh! You're right! You're right! You win! You win!" Hiccup said to her dragon apologetically.

"Accepted." Toothless replied as he fell backwards and rolled over, playfully pawing at Hiccup to the ground.

"She's down! Oh, and it's ugly! Dragons and Vikings, enemies again, locked in combat to the bitter-" Hiccup and Toothless playfully hit each other, until Toothless dropped his entire weight onto Hiccup, pinning her. "-Aaahhhhh! "

Still wanting to punish Hiccup for scaring him, Toothless began licking Hiccup's face, knowing she didn't at all enjoy it.

Shoving him off of herself, Hiccup rolled back and stood up, trying to wipe the spit off. "Gaaaaagh! You know that doesn't wash out!" Seeing Toothless laugh at her, Hiccup splashed his own spit back at him.

Looking back at the new island she discovered, Hiccup pulled out her map she had been working on. Unfolding all it's edges, she took out some spare paper, stuck it onto the map with Toothless' saliva and began marking the island on the map,

"So... what should we name it?" Hiccup asked Toothless, only to see him chewing himself under his arm.

"'Itchy Armpit' it is." Hiccup jokingly said as she continued marking the map.

When Toothless finished grooming himself, he moved up next to Hiccup to watch her work on the map. "Whaddya reckon, bud? Think we might find a few Timberjacks in those woods? The odd Whispering Death or two in the rocks? Who knows... maybe we'll finally track down another Night Fury." Hiccup said, pondering her thoughts. "Wouldn't that be something?"

"Though I'm guessing you wouldn't care much for finding a female Night Fury, since you already have someone special." Hiccup jokingly said, referring to the fact that Toothless and Violet the Skrill were mates. Toothless simply grinned as he rolled his eyes and looked out over the scenery.

"So, whatddya say? Just keep going?" Hiccup asked Toothless, actually wanting to hear his opinion.

"Searching for adventure with you? You know the answer is yes." Toothless replied as he gazed out over the island with curiosity.

The attention of both was caught when they heard the sound of a dragon shrieking behind them. Turning around, they watched as a familiar dark purple striker-class dragon swooped in and land on the sea stack, with Draven Mothlyn atop her. Seeing his beloved mate, Toothless ran over excitedly to greet Violet.

"Afternoon kind sir." Hiccup cheerfully greeted her boyfriend. "Where have you been?"

Dismounting his Skrill, Draven gave Toothless a scratch under his jaw as he went over to Hiccup. "Oh, schooling everyone at races. The real question is... where have you been?" the hybrid replied.

"Avoiding my dad." Hiccup plainly answered. Taking a seat beside Hiccup, Draven asked her with a small level of disinterest "Oh, what now?"

Dropping her pencil and getting up, Hiccup began "Oh, you're gonna- you're gonna love this. I wake up. The sun's shining. Terrible Terrors are singing on the rooftop. I saunter down to breakfast, thinking all is right in the world and I get: "Hiccup, we need to talk."", imitating her father at that last part.

Imitating Hiccup, Draven joking interrupted "Not now, Dad. I've got a whole day of goofing off to get started."

Laughing at Draven's impersonation, Hiccup stated whilst pacing "Okay, first of all, I-I don't sound like that, who- what is this character? And second... what is that thing you're going with my shoulders? That's a truly flattering impersonation. Anyway he goes: 'You're the pride of Berk, dear. And I couldn't be prouder!'"

"Aw, thanks, Dad. I'm pretty impressed with myself, too." Draven jokingly impersonated again, while also shrugging his shoulders again like Hiccup.

"When have I ever done that with my hands?" Hiccup asked, laughing as she gestured to Draven. The Pyro-Typhon simply shot Hiccup a raised eyebrow at how she was shrugging her arms right now.

Moving up to Draven, she placed her hands on his arms to get him to stop shrugging them. "Okay... just... hold still. It's very serious." Hiccup asked pleaded with her boyfriend, who eventually was able to put on a straight face.

Going back into her pace, Hiccup continued "You're all grown up, and since no chief could ask for a better successor, I've decided-"

"TO MAKE YOU CHIEFTESS!" Draven excitedly shouted out in realisation. "Oh, my gods! Hiccup, that's AMAZING!" Draven said as he got up and tried to give Hiccup a congratulatory hug, only for the two of them to be knocked over by Toothless and Violet who were playfully chasing each other around the island.

Helping each other up, Hiccup finished with an unenthusiastic tone "Yeah, so... this is what I'm dealing with."

"What did you tell him?" Draven asked, curious as to why Hiccup sounded disappointed. "I-I didn't." Hiccup stuttered out. "By the time he turned around, I was gone."

"Huh, well, it's a lot of responsibility." Draven said as he folded up the map to give back to Hiccup. "The map will have to wait for sure, and I'll need to fly Toothless, since you'll be too busy..." Draven continued, but paused at the realisation of his extremely poor choice of words. Looking back to Hiccup, he could see in her eyes that it wasn't what he said that bothered her, but still the idea of leading the village.

"I-It's not me, Drav." Hiccup said, wishing that her father would have given the mantle of leadership to someone else. "All those speeches, and planning, and running the village... that's his thing."

"I think you're missing the point. I mean, chief. What an honor. I'd be pretty excited, and that's saying a lot." Draven said back, trying to comfort and reassure Hiccup not to doubt herself.

Yet for the Night Fury rider, things just weren't that simple from her perspective. "I'm not like you. You know exactly who you are. You always have. I'm still looking. I know that I'm not like my father... and I never met my mother... so, what does that make me?" Hiccup pondered, sitting back down looking to the ground.

Taking a seat as well and place his arm over Hiccup's shoulders, Hiccup leaned into Draven's side as the hybrid comfortingly said "What you're searching for isn't out there, Hiccup." Placing his other hand over Hiccup's heart, he finished "It's in here. Maybe you just don't see it yet."

Draven leaned down and kissed Hiccup on the cheek, but pulled back at the taste Toothless' spit. Whilst he tried to wipe it off, Hiccup looked back out over the horizon and noticed something.

"Maybe. But, y'know, there is something out there." Hiccup said curiously with her eyes locked on the horizon.

Draven was beginning to feel as if he was wasting breath trying to reassure Hiccup. "Ugh, woman, you're not making this easy for me..." he said looking down, until Hiccup grabbed his chin and pointed him at a towering pillar of smoke rising over the mountains in the distance.

With his attention on the smoke, Draven's pupils shrunk as he used his dragon sight to see further. As he looked out to the smoke, Hiccup went back to get Toothless and Violet. Draven's curiosity slowly began to grow as something other than the smoke caught his attention.

Hiccup brought both striker dragons back when she noticed Draven still standing on the cliff side. "Dragons are ready, let's go check that out." Hiccup said, but Draven remained frozen on the edge.

Moving over to the hybrid, Hiccup noticed several bad signs. One: she could feel the unnatural chill coming off of Draven, something that only happened when Wraiths or Pyro-Typhons were aggravated. Two: she could see that even with his right hand gloved, its pale blue glow was slowly increasing. Lastly, when she looked into his eyes, she saw that the white of his eyes was turning black, and the red was intensifying.

"There's a Wraith down there." Draven answered with a low growl, staring at the woods ahead of them. "Though there's something...different, about it."

"You know they're territorial." Draven said to his companion. "So we're not reaching that smoke with that thing in our way." Looking out to the forest for a moment, Hiccup asked her partner "Any ideas?"

"Just one. I do my job." Draven plainly answered as he turned around and mounted his dragon. "I'm not called the Wraith Hunter for nothing."

With that, Violet took to the air and towards the forest with Hiccup and Toothless close behind.

...

Why did I choose the name 'Pyro-Typhon'? Well 'Pyro' meaning fire, and 'Typhon' from Greek mythology of the monster god, who was a mix of multiple creatures. It was the best name I could find for my hybrids seeing as how I created Wraiths from blending multiple dragons together.


	2. Chapter 2: New dangers

I do apologise if the chapters in this story are shorter than that of my last story. I'll do my best. Also, quick bit of info for newcomers who haven't read my last story: Draven has a dragon form of his own but cannot fly in daylight without sunlight hurting him (hence he flies on his Skrill).

...

Hiccup and Toothless were following close behind to Draven and Violet who were trying to locate the Wraith Draven was sensing. If it were at all possible, Draven would have preferred to avoid any conflict and just to ascertain whether or not the Wraith would have been a threat or not. If it were simply nearby, he and Hiccup could easily skirt around it to get to the smoke column, but from what Draven was sensing, it was right in their path and it would take too long to skirt around.

Signaling to Hiccup and Toothless, the two dragons and their riders landed in the forest to continue on foot. Upon landing, Draven dismounted and ungloved his morphed right hand, placing it on the ground. Using his Wraith senses, he was trying to find were a Wraith could hide in the surrounding terrain.

Moments later, Hiccup and Toothless landed as well. Approaching her Pyro-Typhon partner while atop Toothless, Hiccup asked him "What is it Drav? Why did we land?" Quiet for a moment, Draven stood back up and replied "Something's wrong here. You know how much Wraiths hate sunlight and yet there isn't a cave in this area for miles. So if they couldn't find a cave, then they'd no doubt create an electrical storm to shroud out the sun and yet here we are with clear skies. Lastly, as dense as this forest is, the canopy is nowhere near thick enough to block the sun either."

With eyes going wide with shock and nervousness, Hiccup hesitantly asked "So, what? Do we have a Wraith that's fully immune to the sun?"

With chills running down Draven's back, the hybrid simply replied "Please, don't ever say that sentence out loud again. The thought if that makes even me nervous."

Hearing several sound coming from deeper within the forest, Draven readied himself and began to move through the trees. "Stay close, eyes up." The hybrid said to his companion as the moved.

For several minutes, Draven scouted the area searching for signs of the Wraith he was sensing. Hiccup, Toothless and Violet stayed close behind with Violet sniffing for Wraith whereabouts.

Eventually after coming up with nothing and deciding the coast was clear to get to the smoke column, the riders prepared to mount up. It was at this point that Hiccup saw something BIG moving about the thick treeline behind Draven. Bigger than any Wraith she'd ever seen. "Uh, guys!" Hiccup warned Violet and Draven.

Hearing a twig snap behind him, Draven drew his sword and turned to face the Wraith. However as he turned, he heard and felt a deafeningly loud and disorientating screech resonate throughout his mind. Dropping to the ground, the two riders and their dragons heard the Wraith speak to them in human tongue. "Calm yourself child. I am not the one here who's a threat." the Wraith said to Draven in a female voice.

After a moment, the disorientation subsided and Draven looked up to see what was clearly a Wraith, only it wasn't. It was twice the size of a standard Wraith making it close to the size of a Timberjack. It's outer pair of wings were coated in it's hard black armoured scales and it's exo-skull was black as well instead of silver. It also didn't have any kind of pale blue glow like a normal Wraith, but a bright golden glow. Lastly and most unnervingly, it was clearly standing in raw sunlight and yet seemed to have no issue with it whatsoever.

"I mean you no harm Draven Mothlyn. I wouldn't even harm a fly, but I can still easily put you down again if you try threaten me." the Wraith said in a calm manner. "You know who I am?" Draven asked, breathing heavily from his disorientation.

"Oh but of course." the Wraith said with a chuckle. "What Wraith doesn't know the great Draven Mothlyn, famed Wraith-hunter and the worlds first ever Pyro-Typhon."

Toothless and Violet were standing in front of Hiccup and Draven in battle stance to protect their riders, when Draven gestured for them to stand down. He sensed from earlier that this Wraith was different and it wasn't the fact that this Wraith was clearly of a different kind. This Wraith was...calm, atypical of the other Wraiths he'd encountered. Carefully stepping forward whilst still being ready to strike, Draven watched the gargantuan Fear class dragon closely. "What do you want?" Draven asked.

"Why nothing dear boy." the Wraith chuckled. "I was simply minding my own business in the clouds when I heard the sounds of battle over that mountain. I came down to explore and it was then that I sensed your presence and I guess curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to meet the first person who became a human/Wraith hybrid."

It was at this point that the female Wraith noticed the look in Hiccup's eyes as well as the others. "My father once taught me 'If you have a question, ask.' Speak you mind child." the Wraith asked Hiccup.

"S-Sorry, it's just that... Besides your colours and size, you behave different to Wraiths Draven and I have met before. Civilised almost." Hiccup answered the giant dragon.

"Ah, why I haven't attacked any of you yet. Draven, you may be more surprised than most by the truth." the Wraith said as she slowly stepped closer to the group. "What if I told you that Wraiths are not only more civilised than most would believe but there are far more of us than you realise."

Still maintaining his guard with his hand still on his sword, Draven said to the Wraith "I'm listening."

The Wraith began "Have you ever noticed and wondered that for all the victims that Wraiths claim to infect, you see so few of them? Well let's just say most victims send themselves into self imposed exile out of shame while the few that you do see are the malicious kind that spread the Wraith curse out of spite. Most Wraiths are actually about as friendly as they were when they were human. You just have to find them."

Draven thought over what the female Wraith had said for a moment and in a way, it did make sense to him. Despite his hate for Wraiths for what one did to he and his family, he was strangely eager to listen to more of what this Wraith had to say.

Noticing at how the group kept staring at her features, the Wraith continued "As for my appearance, well, this is just what happens when we Wraiths reach Titan-wing status. We become Alphas among Wraiths. It was because of this that I was able to exert some will over you, Draven, and stop you from trying anything rash."

"Alpha!?" Hiccup, Toothless, Draven and Violet said in unison with surprise in their voices.

"Yes." the Wraith said. "Though we cannot attain that status through age alone like other dragons. Wraiths can only become Titan-wings by killing other Wraiths and becoming stronger from absorbing their essences. I killed nearly a dozen Wraiths out of defence to become what I am today."

Looking back to the horizon, the Wraith finally said to the group "Well you kids better run along now if you want to find out what happened over that mountain. Good day to you." Opening her massive wings, she shot into the sky and disappeared from sight.

"Interesting." Draven thought aloud at these new revelations that continually swirled within his mind. Getting back onto Toothless, Hiccup said to her partner "Come on. It's getting late and we still gotta check out whatever made that smoke."

Sheathing his sword and shaking his head to clear his mind, Draven simply got back onto Violet and followed Hiccup towards the smoke column.

...

Flying low while just above the treeline, the two riders and their dragons made their way to the smoke. As they moved over the forest, the scenery changed from lush autumn trees to burned out husks and dead land. Whatever battled here, it left little standing.

Reaching the edge of the forest, Toothless and Violet weaved in and out of several sea stacks and ice spikes. Reaching the other side however, both dragons came to a dead halt in the air with their riders gasping at the site of an inconceivably large tower of ice spikes with pieces of structures hanging off its ends.

Hiccup looked back to Draven wondering if he had an answer, but all he answered was a surprised and shocked expression and a shrug. "Stay close." Hiccup said as she and Toothless took point.

Circling the tower of ice, the thing that they continually kept looking at was the ruined structures impaled by the ice. "What happened here?" Hiccup wondered aloud.

Feeling that something was not right, Draven put on his hood and ungloved his right hand in case things would get heated.

Toothless however was looking down and noticed something unnerving for him. He saw two massive dragon footprints in the mud at where the ice seemed to start. "I don't like this Hic'. Those are bigger even than Red Death's tracks." the Night Fury growled out. "Alright. Easy, bud." Hiccup said soothingly to her dragon whilst petting his side.

At this point, the riders had reached the far side of the tower where Draven noticed movement on the ground. "Hiccup!" the hybrid warned.

"FIRE!" a mercenary on the ground shouted out.

With that order, a bola-net launcher fired from the ground headed right for the riders. "DRAVEN! LOOK OUT!" hiccup yelled to her companion, but it was too little, too late.

As Toothless turned to evade the net, Violet was perfectly lined up. Hitting the Skrill and tangling both her feet and one of her wings together, she began to plummet from the sky.

"No! VIOLET!" Draven panicked as he prayed himself from the net, but couldn't reach his dagger to get it off his Skrill before she'd hit the deck.

"Go! I'll be fine!" Violet shouted back reassuringly as the ground neared. Knowing she could take the fall, Draven jumped off of Violet and shrouded himself in black and dark purple smoke, transforming into his hybridised form. Not a second after the smoke cleared, Draven immediately began to feel the disorientating and strength-sapping effects of the sun. Grouping up with Toothless and Hiccup, the three flew back around to rescue Violet.

Violet hit the ground hard but was able to shake off the crash. Thrashing her spiked tail around, she was able to tear the nets to escape, whereby she started channeling her lightning within to her wings and mouth.

Unfortunately for her, these mercenaries knew her weakness, and quickly doused her in water to keep her from conducting electricity.

"Watch the tail!" the mercenary leader called out as he and his team jumped onto the thrashing Skrill. "Tie those legs up!"

The mercenaries were much more skilled than Violet had anticipated and before she knew it, she was completely bound in nets and was subdued on the ground.

Just then, everyone on the ground began to feel icy chills with the wind and thick sheets of frost began to grow all around them. Hearing a high pitched whistling sound, the mercenary leader looked up to see two figures pass over them; one black and one glowing blue.

"Are those what I think they are?" the leader said to himself.

"STOP!" Hiccup cried out as Toothless and Draven landed.

Upon landing, Draven changed to a state that was between human and Typhon state. Red mist still oozed from his eyes, his morphed right arm was exposed and the surface veins under his skin glowed an intense blue.

As Hiccup jumped off of Toothless, both riders drew their weapons. Draven drawing his katana, Harvest, and Hiccup drawing her modified dragon sword, Inferno, in which she set the blade alight.

"Whoa!" the mercenaries all said in unison at the sight.

"Back again?" the mercenary leader said as he face the riders, thinking they were the ones who attacked him earlier. "Soil my britches... A Night Fury and a Pyro-Typhon. You don't often find many of them around. Looks like our luck's had a turn for the better, lads! Don't think Drago has either of those in his dragon army." the leader said to his men, seeing Toothless and Draven as prizes.

"Dragon army?" Draven questioned. Hiccup could clearly see that Draven was in no mood for this and wanted to prevent conflict.

"Look, we don't want any trouble." Hiccup pleaded, trying to bring the heated situation to a peaceful solution.

"Ha! You should've thought of that before you stole all of our dragons and blasted our fort to bits!" the leader yelled, gesturing to the ruins behind him stuck in the ice.

"What!? Clearly you don't know much about how PYRO-Typhons fight." Draven said, trying to convince the mercenaries that he and Hiccup were innocent.

"You think we did this?" Hiccup added.

Stepping away from Violet, the leader continued "Dragon trapping is hard enough work as it is, without do-gooder Dragon Riders sneaking in to rescue them."

"What do-gooder-" Hiccup wondered, but it was then that the words sparked something in her mind. As far as she knew, Berk was the only places in the Archipelago to have Dragon Riders, AND no one from Berk had ever traveled this far north before. This could only mean one thing. "There are other Dragon Riders?"

"You mean, other than your thieving friend from last night? You tell me." the leader added, still thinking Hiccup and Draven were lying. "You may have an ice-spitting dragon on your side, but we still have a quota to fill. How do you suppose we explain this mess to Drago Bludvist?"

"Drago what-vist?" Hiccup wondered, not sure if that name was suppose to mean something. "Does anything you say make sense?"

"He's expecting a new shipment of dragons for his army by tomorrow." one mercenary said.

"And Drago don't take well to excuses." another mercenary added.

"This is what he gave me last time I showed up empty-handed." the leader said as he pulled down the top of his shirts to reveal a large burn scar in a symbol. "He promised to be far less understanding in the future."

"Look, we don't know anything about a dragon thief, or an ice-spitting dragon..." Hiccup pleaded, trying to remedy the situation. It was then that the leader gave a slight nod to more mercenaries atop a platform behind the riders. Draven however noticed this. "Or your lunatic boss and his dragon army, okay? Just give us back our dragon and we'll go, strange, hostile person whom we've never met." Hiccup continued.

"Oh, where are my manners? Ha. I'm Eret. Son of Eret." the man said with a bow, pulling out a blade a moment later. "Finest dragon trapper alive. After all, it's not just anyone who can capture a Night Fury."

"Try it!" Toothless growled out.

"And this is Toothless. He says we're going. Now." Hiccup said, backing away with Toothless from the group.

"Heh. They all say that. Rush 'em, lads!" Eret ordered.

Toothless, Draven and Hiccup had anticipated this however and were ready. Toothless and Draven acted at the same time, with the Night Fury firing a plasma shot at an overhanging spike of ice, shattering it and bringing it down on Eret and his team.

Draven retaliated by releasing his whip-like tendril from his right arm and swiped it at the mercenary team Eret nodded to, hitting them with a plasma blast.

With the trappers split up, Hiccup rushed over to Violet with Inferno in hand and cut the nets. The Skrill was out of her restraints quick and made a beeline for her rider.

"Violet! C'mon!" Draven called out, mounting her as she reached him. "Go! Go!"

With the riders on their dragons, Draven covered their take off with his paralysing mist and took to the air.

Eret was able to avoid the mist and watched hopelessly as his potential prizes disappeared into the sky. "YOU WILL NEVER HOLD ON TO THOSE DRAGONS, YOU HEAR ME?! DRAGO IS COMING FOR THEM ALL!" Eret screamed to the riders as they escaped.

Looking to each other, the two riders knew that this was bigger than anything they'd dealt with before, whether it being Outcasts or Berserkers. "Let's get home. My dad would want to hear this." Hiccup said to Draven.

Draven couldn't agree more. Between discovering a new revelation about Wraiths and Wraith Alphas, and now this 'Drago' with his dragon army, he and Hiccup knew the future would no doubt hold more challenges.


	3. Chapter 3: Damaged trusts

Sorry that the chapter is late, but I had a bit of a block this weekend as well as some trouble with this chapter. Also, I added two extra scenes for this chapter, one of which is a delete scene. Let's see if you guys can spot it.

...

Berk was abuzz with activity with everyone going about their usual business and the teens chasing each other around then island on their dragons. Getting near to Gothi's hut, Snotlout decided to have some fun by repeatedly flying very close to the elders hut, scaring her Terrible Terrors. As soon as Gothi calmed her Terrors, Snotlout made yet another pass, scaring the tiny stokers away.

"Ha-ha" Snotlout laughed as he taunted Gothi.

Out of frustration, all Gothi could do was waive her fist at the arrogant 20 year old as he and the others flew off towards the town plaza.

Down in the plaza by the forge, Stoick was making his way to Gobber whilst also greeting his fellow villagers. Everyone seemed cheerful for the day they had so far, except for Spitelout who just felt embarrassed for his son's behavior during the race earlier.

Stoick eventually squeezed his way past the crowd at the forge and reached the smith. "Any sign of her?" the chief asked his best friend.

"Ah, she's probably flown off the edge of the world by now. You sure you want that kid running the village? You can still delay your retirement." Gobber asked, wondering himself if Hiccup was ready for the mantle of responsibility.

"Oh, she's ready. You'll see." Stoick reassured. He knew that despite Hiccup's stubbornness, she was ready.

Suddenly, just as he said that, two Striker dragons landed in the plaza outside the forge. "Ha-ha-ha! There she is! The pride of Berk!" Stoick eagerly cheered.

"Who finally decided to show up for work. Yay." Gobber sarcastically added as Hiccup entered the forge.

"Sorry. Got held up." Hiccup apologised as she went over to her father. "Hey, Dad, could I have a word?" she asked.

"Something you're itching to tell me?" Stoick eagerly asked as he patted Hiccup on her shoulder and made his way through the forge.

"Ah, not quite the itch you're thinking of, but yes." Hiccup nervously answered as she thought about how to tell her father the news.

Stoick however was still to preoccupied with Hiccup's ascension to notice her tone of voice. "Ah, good! Now, lesson one. A chief's first duty is to their people. So...Forty-one?" Stoick said, calling out to the vikings in line to get their dragon saddles.

It was a bad memory come back to life for Hiccup. Just by how her father answered her a moment ago, it was almost exactly like 'conversions' they had before the peace with dragons. "Wha- Could we just talk in private for-" Hiccup asked, trying to get her father to hear the urgency in her voice.

"Forty-"

"That's me! That's me! I'm next! I was ahead of you!" viking Starkard called out from the back of the crowd.

"If we could just talk-" Hiccup said again, trying to get her father's attention.

"Excuse me, I've been here all day!" Starkard said as he shoved past his fellow villagers to reach Stoick by the window. "Okay, okay. I want one of those high seaters, with lots of spikes and big stowage compartment."

"Absolutely! You got it, sir!" Stoick proudly acknowledged.

As Stoick turned around to head towards the heavy machinery in the forge, Hiccup tried again. "Ah, Dad, this is actually a little more important than building saddles."

"Ah-ah! Lesson two. No task is too small when it comes to serving your people." Stoick said, with his mind still in a cheery daze and still not actually noticing the urgency in his daughter's voice.

"Oh, excuse us, Grump." Stoick commented as he and Hiccup had to squeeze past Gobber's dragon to get to the other side of the forge.

As Stoick and Hiccup got past the sleeping Hotburple, the dragon was awoken from his deep sleep from the yelling of his human. "Ah! Grump! You let the forge die down again!" Gobber shouted.

"Yeah, yeah." Grump plainly said with a yawn as he turned to the forge to light it. However, instead of a simple flame, Grump barfed up an entire lava ball, nearly setting the entire forge on fire.

"That's it, Grump. You're going up for adoption!" Gobber sarcastically said as he dowsed the fires with the sprinklers above the forge.

Back with the Haddocks, Stoick was still in too cheery a mood with the thought of making his daughter chief that he was still practically ignoring the urgency in her tone. "There you go! Go on. Have away." he said as he handed Hiccup a large piece of leather to mark and cut up for another saddle.

"Yeah, but seriously, I really need to tell you about this new land we came across." Hiccup said, actually beginning to raise her voice slightly.

"Another one?!" Gobber said in surprise.

"Any new dragons?" Fishlegs eagerly asked.

"Well, aside from meeting a golden Alpha Wraith and learning that 90% of Wraiths are apparently friendly..." Draven mentioned, to which Hiccup finished "We didn't stick around to find out. These folks weren't particularly friendly."

"Oh, really?" Gobber sarcastically said with some level of surprise. "Your Night Fury, Skrill and Pro-Typhon didn't bring them cheering to the rooftops?"

"No, this was different." Hiccup warned. "Not the standard run-for-the hills ho-ha I've come to enjoy. These guys were trappers. Dragon trappers."

"You should've seen their fort." Draven said, with some level of awe in his voice as he recalled the memories. "All blown apart and stuck in giant spikes of ice. It was weird!"

Hiccup couldn't agree more. She and Draven had seen much in their time but nothing could have compared to seeing a dragon trapper fort blown apart and impaled by colossal spikes of ice. "I've never seen anything like it. A-And worst of all, they thought we did it!" Hiccup said, sounding concerned.

Detaching his hammer hand and putting on his brush hand, Gobber said to his former apprentice "Y'know, you two are gonna get yourselves in SERIOUS trouble one of these days. Not everyone appreciates this way of life."

"Gobber's right, Hiccup." Stoick said to his daughter, trying to reassure her that this wasn't their problem. "Best we keep to our own. Besides, you'll have more important uses for your time. Once we make the big announcement!" Stoick finished eagerly as he turned on a machine in the forge to cut up the leather for the saddles.

Out of frustration, Hiccup shut the machine off and firmly said to her father "They are building a dragon army. Or-Or at least the guy they're working for is. Ah, "Dargo Bloody-Fist" or something."

An eery silence fell over the group from what Hiccup had said. Those two words resonated in both Stoick's and Gobber's heads. It was a name they both hoped to never hear again, in this life or the next.

"I'll bloody his fist with my face if he tries to take my dragon!" Tuffnut said to break the silence and to try sound tough to reassure Hiccup that he would always help her. "Or mine!" Ruffnut added, not actually realising that that was what her brother just said.

"Urgh, you're such a moron." Tuffnut sighed to his sister at her comment, seeing as how both their dragons was still only ONE dragon.

"A beautiful moron." Fishlegs and Snotlout flirted to Ruffnut, but only made her feel all the more awkward.

"Bludvist? Drago Bludvist?" Stoick anxiously asked, shaking Hiccup by her shoulders.

"Uh yeah. Wait. You know him?" Hiccup nervously asked.

Stoick's eyes widened and Hiccup could actually begin to see fear manifesting in her father's eyes. For the chief, this was a nightmare come to pass.

...

"GROUND ALL DRAGONS!" Stoick cried out as he entered the tunnel into the dragon hanger.

"What? Why?!" Hiccup questioned as she and Draven followed just behind the chief.

"SEAL THE GATES! LOWER THE STORM DOORS!" Stoick ordered again as he, Hiccup, Draven and their dragons got to the central area of the cave.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait! What is happening?" Hiccup asked her father confusedly.

"Come on! You heard the man! Lock it down!" Gobber shouted to the men at the entrance to the hanger.

"No DRAGON or VIKING sets foot off this island until I give the word!" Stoick ordered again.

"Wait, because some guy you knew is stirring up trouble in some faraway land?" Hiccup asked again, her and Draven still as confused as ever. What was especially unnerving for them was that they could clearly see that Stoick was clearly exhibiting signs of fear, ever since Hiccup said that name.

"Because Drago Bludvist is a madman, without conscious or mercy." Stoick said firmly to his daughter as dragons came flooding in from the outside. "And if he's built a dragon army... gods help us all."

Most of the dragons had retreated back into the hanger by now. "Get them into their pens! Quickly!" Stoick said to his villagers dismounted their dragons.

Grabbing her father's shoulder and pulling him to face her, Hiccup pleaded to Stoick "Then let's ride back out there. We'll follow those trappers to Drago and talk some sense into him."

"No. We fortify the island." the chief replied.

"It's our duty to keep the peace!" Hiccup said in a determined manner, slowly starting to raise her voice.

"Peace is over, Hiccup. I must prepare you for war." Stoick plainly said.

"War? Hiccup questioned, shocked to say the least that her father would say such a thing knowing how much he tried to keep the peace. "Dad, if Drago's coming for our dragons, we can't wait around for him to get here. Let's go find him and change his mind."

"Some minds won't be changed, Hiccup. Berk is what you need to worry about. A chief protects their own." Stoick answered as he went back to coordinating the lockdown. "SECURE THE STABLE! LATCH EVERY STALL!"

Looking to Toothless, Hiccup could see the worry in her dragon's eyes and could see that he too couldn't sit idly by and wait. Draven could anticipate what Hiccup and Toothless were thinking, and even he knew that it would be risky. They knew little to no information about this new foe and now Hiccup wanted to ride out.

"Hiccup, don't!" Draven said to Hiccup, hoping to deter her from heading out so they could maybe think their situation through.

"I have to." Hiccup protested as she gave Draven a quick kiss on his cheek and went over to Toothless.

"I'll be back." she said as she mounted her Night Fury.

"What!? You not going without me." Draven protested back as Toothless prepared to take off. If he couldn't change her mind, he could at least go with her to make sure she'd be safe.

Meanwhile, Stoick was just about finished guiding the last of the dragons into their stalls. "THIS WAY! QUICKLY!" he said, but not a moment later, Toothless blew by him with Hiccup, headed straight for the exit.

"HICCUP!" the chief yelled, but it was too late. Hiccup and Toothless blew past the first gate which was still only half way down. Seeing their window closing, Toothless spun around and dove through the gap in the second lowering storm door with some room to spare.

Not a second later, Draven and Violet flew past Stoick as well, narrowly escaping through the outer gate just before it shut, leaving Stoick fuming.

...

Hiccup and Draven travelled north until they found the ruined trapper fort, whereby they tracked Eret and his party further north. When night came, a heavy storm rolled in where the riders had to camp out in a mountain cave.

Toothless and Violet were snuggled together in he corner of the cave in a deep sleep while Draven was standing by the cave entrance, meditating with the sound of the rain. Hiccup was in the middle of the cave by the fire touching up details on her map. It amazed her how little she and everyone else knew of the world around them. It amazed her how the world seemed to go on and on seemingly without end. 'How far would you need to go to reach the end of the world?' Hiccup quietly thought to herself.

"Something bothering you?" Hiccup heard Draven asked as he came by to sit down next to her by the fire.

Leaning into Draven's shoulder, Hiccup answered "Just...I've never seen my dad show fear. I mean, he's Stoick the Vast for Thor's sake. Who is this 'Drago' person, and what's the history between he and my father?"

Putting his arm around Hiccup, Draven said softly to her "I'm sure everything will be fine Hiccup. We've been in tough situations before, from outcasts, to Dagger and his berserkers, to the Screaming Death and those two Wraiths we had to deal with last year. We resolved every single one of those conflicts and I have without a doubt we can solve this one too."

Chuckling slightly, Hiccup looked up into Draven's crimson eyes and said "Always the sweet talker with you, heh?" It was one of the things Hiccup loved about Draven. How even in dark times, he'd find that light to push on, and him being a hybrid is evidence to that.

Tightening their child on each other, the two dragon riders leaned in for a deep kiss, as the sound of the rain outside helped them to sleep.

...

It was early the next morning in the northern seas, with the dragon trapper ship sailing through the water at a quick pace. "Keep your eyes peeled, lads! With this wind, we'll reach Drago by daybreak, so best we fill this ship up with dragons and quick! It's no time to be picky." Eret said to his men as they carried cargo back and forth.

Speaking of finding dragons, one of Eret's men spotted something coming towards them at high speed. "Uh... Eret?"

Eret continued addressing his men as he turned in the direction his man pointed out. "Not if we want to keep our-"

The sight of two Striker dragons closing in was all the motivation he needed for the day. "HEADS!" Eret alerted his men. "Off the port quarter! Net 'em, lads! Take 'em down!"

However, as Eret loaded the one bola net launcher, he noticed that the two dragons seemed somewhat familiar. They were the same dragons from yesterday.

"You're not getting away this time. Fire!" Eret ordered as all four launchers fired in unison.

Being prepared this time, Toothless and Violet effortlessly dived and rolled, evading the nets and getting right on top of the ship, landing a second later

"And here I was worried we might turn up empty-handed." Eret said, surprised at the sight of Hiccup and Draven returning.

"Nope. It's your lucky day." Hiccup said to the lead trapper. "We give up." she said, gesturing to Draven to not pull out his katana.

Hiccup hadn't shared any kind of plan to Draven as she was still thinking it through. 'What's going through her head now?' Draven pondered and he sheathed the few inches of his sword he pulled out.

Dismounting, the two riders started making their way to the opposite end of the ship with their dragons close behind. "That's one Night Fury, one Skrill and two of the finest Dragon Riders west of Luk Tuk." Hiccup listed as she jokingly threw a net over Draven and handing his sword over to Eret. "That oughtta make the boss happy, right? Excuse us."

"What are you doing?" Draven whispered to Hiccup as she guided he and her into the dragon cage below deck.

"Ah, Toothless, stay." Hiccup said to her dragon as the she shut the cage, leaving Toothless and Violet with Eret and his trappers. "The dragons don't really care for cramped spaces, so they'll just hang out with you. They won't be any trouble."

Out if typical Dragon Trapper hospitality, the trappers almost immediately drew blades on the two strikers. The dragons were startled for a moment but almost immediately went I to battle stance and snarled deeply at the trappers.

"Unless you do that." Hiccup said as she poked her head between the cage bars. "You know, wooden boat, big ocean- How's your swimming?"

"Not good." one trapper commented shamefully.

Hiccup went back into the cage, but only for a burst of flame from Inferno to erupt out a moment later, causing the crewmen to jump back.

"Oops. Almost forgot. Can't have armed prisoners." Hiccup said, sounding oblivious as she handed her sword to the trappers.

"Mind telling me how this is supposed to work?" Draven whispered confusedly behind Hiccup.

One crewman cautiously takes Hiccup's sword and looked it over. Accidentally hitting a button, the pommel of the hilt began expelling green Zippleback gas.

"Just what every Dragon Trapper needs. One end coats the blade in Monstrous Nightmare saliva. The other sprays Hideous Zippleback gas. All it takes is a spark and..." Hiccup commented as she slowly ducked her head back into the cage for cover.

Just as she anticipated, one trapper touched the other button on the sword hilt, sparking the lighter and igniting the napalm.

"Oh yeah, there you go!" Hiccup snickered, seeing the trapper all lightly singed. "Once they see you as one of their own, even the testiest dragon can be trained, right, bud?" she said as Toothless curiously chased an ember like a playful cat.

"Give me that!" Eret shouted as he grabbed the sword and threw it overboard. "I got it!" Violet yelled as she chased after Hiccup's weapon.

"What game are you playing?" Eret furiously questioned to the female dragon rider.

"No game. We just want to meet Drago." Hiccup answered as Violet handed her sword to her.

"Why?" Eret asked.

"Because I'm going to change his mind about dragons." Hiccup said, determination in her voice.

After a moment of silence and confused expressions, Eret and his men all burst out in laughter.

Figuring out his companions plan, Draven came out of the cage and said to Eret "She can be really persuasive."

"Once you've earned his loyalty, there is nothing a dragon won't do for you." Hiccup said as Toothless came to sit next to her.

"Puh! You won't be changing any minds around here." Eret replied, seeing the riders as fools.

"I can change yours. Right here. Right now." Hiccup said with a smirk as she opened up Toothless' tail. "Ah, may I?" she said as to the lead trapper, gesturing to Toothless' saddle.

Not sure what Hiccup was playing at, Eret simply rolled his eyes and said "Well, since Drago doesn't care whether I deliver you dead or alive, I'm going to give you as long as it take to remove that noisy head of yours. How's that?" whilst pulling out his blade

"Fair enough." Hiccup replied, seeing that convincing Eret would make more than a small effort. "So you trap dragons and ship them north? To Drago?" she asked.

Losing his patients, Eret attacked. "EXCEPT WHEN THEY'RE STOLEN BY YOU!" he yelled as he stepped onto the ship's railing and lunged at Hiccup with an overhead attack.

Knowing he'd try that, Hiccup pulled her dagger and cut loose several barrels, tripping Eret as they rolled off each other. "Right. My good friend, the 'dragon thief' and his ice spitting buddy." Hiccup said sarcastically, seeing that Eret still believed she was the thief.

Getting back up with blade in hand Eret venomously said to the female rider "Your dragon stealing days are over. Drago has found the ice Spitter's cave!" Trying to take another swipe at his opponent, Hiccup easily dodge, utilising the training from Draven.

Continuing to try swipe at Hiccup, Eret continued "Soon, all your dragons will be working for Drago's army."

"Oh yeah, sure." Hiccup said sarcastically. "Ya know, dragons aren't exactly the easiest to train." she said.

Grabbing Hiccup by her armour collar, Eret said to her "Even dragons know not to cross Drago Bludvist." pushing her to the edge of the ship, he finished "Is this part of changing my mind?"

"Oh, that part's coming." Hiccup said as she grabbed one of the sail support ropes and cut the end, catapulting her up to the top of the sails. "Rope burn!" she joked on the way up.

"Come now! Eret said as he followed Hiccup to the top. "Drago's about to take over the world. You're either worth him or against him."

Looking down, Hiccup saw Draven and their dragons watching eagerly from the deck, showing some level of concern for Hiccup's 'negotiating' skills.

Balancing on the sail's support beam, Eret slowly began to approach Hiccup with blade in hand. "And the way I see it, against is a loosing proposition."

Reaching the end of the beam and with nowhere to go, Eret smoked as he said to Hiccup "Any last words?"

Smirking back, hiccup replied "No, just this." whilst cutting them main rope holding the beam in place.

With the rope cut, notiphing was keeping tension on the mast any more. Snapping like a branch, Eret and Hiccup were catapulted into the air. Seeing this, Toothless immediately reacted, knowing now why Hiccup opened his tail.

"ARGH YOU IDIOT!" Eret cried out as they flew through the air. Looking ahead, Eret saw that he was heading straight for several razor spiked columns of ice. "Whoa whoa whoa" Eret panicked, however at the last second two black dragon hand grabbed his arms and pulled a sharp turn.

Taking control of the tail again, Hiccup and Toothless went into a steep climb before going straight into a spinning dive. "OH NO! MAKE IT STOP, MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE TELL HIM TO MAKE IT STOP!" Eret screamed as he in turn clung to Toothless' arms.

"Hold on!" Hiccup said with a grin as Toothless went into one final dive towards the ship. As tough and as hard as Eret was, even he couldn't help but scream his lungs out in the dive.

"Ah, the old 'scare them until they cooperate' trick." Violet commented as she stood next to her hybrid rider. "Classic." Draven replied with a smirk.

Reaching the ship, Toothless gently decelerated and dropped Eret back in the middle of the ship whilst landing back with Violet and Draven.

"So?" Hiccup asked Eret, wanting an opinion on the flight.

"So what!? Eret replied confusedly. "You didn't do anything, your dragon did it all." he said, pointing to the Night Fury.

Still surprised Eret didn't understand yet, Hiccup simply repeated herself "Once you earn his loyalty, there is nothing a dragon won't do for you."

"Oh they've done enough for us already!" Eret barked back, trying to express his hatred for dragons. "Right lads?" he asked his men.

However before anyone capuld answer, they all heard a playful grumbling coming from Toothless. Turning around, they all saw Toothless on his side playfully rubbing up against Hiccup. "Who's a good dragon? Who saved him? You did." Hiccup playfully said to Toothless as she scratched him under his jaw.

Eret had to admit it. Seeing a dragon act like a docile house cat was...different. It actually made him think about everything Hiccup had said.

However as Hiccuo got back up, two large red claws snatched her up and pulled her off the ship while also shredding the main sail. It was Snotlout and Hookfang.

"Dragon Riders!" Eret alerted him men.

Not knowing who it was, Toothless growled as he climbed to the top of the sail, only to realise it was his friends who had arrived.

"Put me down! Snotlout! What are you doing?" Hiccup shouted to her cousin.

"See how well I protect and provide?" the Nightmare rider said to Ruffnut, still trying desperately to impress her.

Ignoring Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had to pull several sharp turns to evade the nets being launched at them. "Aggh! What is with all the nets?!' Tuffnut thought aloud.

"Hey watch it! That was close..." Ruffnut yelled as one net just brushed past her. However as she said that and looked down to the ship, the first thing she saw was Eret. The world seemed to slow down for her as she stared at the large, muscular trapper, loaded the bola net launcher and firing it. "Oh, my. Me likey." she said to herself as she felt herself fall in love.

"Take me." she said as the net came towards her, sharing on her saddle and getting herself and Barf wrapped in the net.

During all the commotion, Draven was able to recover his sword as the situation deteriorated around him. Meanwhile, Hiccup was growing tired of arguing with her cousin. placing her feet against Hookfang, she pushed herself out of the Nightmare's claws and opened her wing suite.

Gliding down back to the ship, one of the trappers lined his launcher right towards Hiccup.

Draven saw this and knew he would be able to reach the trapper in time. Raising his right hand, he fired a non-lethal plasma pulse through his glove at the launcher, able to knock the net just enough to miss Hiccup.

Hiccup in turn was able to steer herself just enough collide into the intact sail and use it to gently get back down to the main deck.

"Uh, WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE?!" Hiccup asked the riders all around them.

"We're here to rescue you!" Gobber answered as he, the twins, Snotlout, Fishlegs and Andor landed on the stern of the ship

"I don't NEED to be rescued!" Hiccup snapped back, feeling a little disheartened that her friends didn't trust her and Draven enough.

"ENOUGH!" Stoick barked out as his Rumblehorn, Skullcrusher loaned on the nose of Eret's ship.

The boat was dead silent with the arrival of Stoick. It was an atmosphere that could rival those of Draven's whenever he was antagonised.

"Well, didn't you just pick the wrong ship eh?" Eret said to Stoick who was matching over to the center of the deck. "I am Eret, son of-" Eret tried to say, but Stoick couldn't care less. Grabbing Eret's face, Stoick shoved him aside towards Gobber.

Gobber in turn whacked Eret over the hard with his hammer hand, to which Grump lay on top of him to make sure he wouldn't try anything. "Get... this... thing... off... me!" Eret begged breathlessly.

"Anyone else?" Gobber asked the crew, which Andor, Snotlout, and Fishlegs were keeping in cheque. "Hmm, that's what I figured."

After a tense moment of silence, Stoick let out a sigh and simply said to his daughter "You. Saddle up. We're going home."

"No." Hiccup replied defiantly.

Stoick was beginning to grow frustrated with Hiccup. As much as she was a determined individual, this was one time he needed her to listen. "Of all the irresponsible-" he said, clenching his fists.

"Look, I'm trying to protect our dragons and stop a war!" Hiccup interrupted, speaking clouded than she usually did. "How is that irresponsible?!"

"BECAUSE WAR IS WHAT HE WANTS, HICCUP!" Stoick said, trying to deter Hiccup from whatever she was thinking.

This didn't seem at all right to Hiccup. First Stoick seemed almost fearful of Drago when she mentioned his name, now he seemed almost bloodthirsty and seeing their only option being war. Stoick realised this when he saw the look in Hiccup's eyes.

Taking a breath to calm down, he began to explain. "Years ago, there was a great gathering of chieftains to discuss the dragon scourge we all faced. Into our midst came a stranger from a strange land, covered in scars and draped in a cloak of dragon skin. He carried no weapon and spoke softly, saying that he, Drago Bludvist, was a man of the people, devoted to freeing mankind from the tyranny of dragons. He claimed that he alone could control the dragons and he alone could keep us safe, if we chose to bow down and follow him."

The group couldn't help but burst out laughing at that idea. One man? Able to control all dragons? And saying he'd only do so if people bowed to him? It all just seemed like the leadup to a bad joke.

"Stupid." Tuffnut muttered as he laughed

"Ah, good one." Ruffnut added, wiping a tear away from her laugh.

"Aye. We laughed too." Stoick said to the group. "Until he wrapped himself in his cloak and cried, "Then see how well you do without me!". The rooftop suddenly burst into flames, and from it, armored dragons descended, burning the hall to the ground. I… was the only one to escape."

Hoping his story would have gotten through to Hiccup, the chief turned back to his daughter, "Men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with."

"Maybe." Hiccup replied as she turned and made her way to Toothless.

"Hiccup..." Stoick said in a raised time whilst reaching out to her. All he wanted was for her to listen to him.

"I'm still going to try." Hiccup said in a confident tone and she mounted Toothless, trying to reassure her father. "This is what I'm good at. And if I could change your mind... I can change his, too."

Despite her stubbornness, Stoick couldn't help but feel somewhat proud of his daughter's determination, though he didn't show it. "Come on." Hiccup said to her Night Fury, shooting into the sky a second later.

Climbing onto Violet, Draven said to his Skrill "Let's go."

"No!" Stoick commanded the Pyro-Typhon. "Lead the others back to Berk. I've had enough mutiny for one day."

Snorting slightly at how Stoick tried to give him -a person who's stubbornness rivaled that of Hiccup- an order, he replied to the chief "Stoick, you should know by now that wherever Hiccup goes, I go, especially in situations like this. I'm sorry chief, but Hiccup's not your only mutineer today."

Before anyone could say or do anything, Violet shit into the sky after Toothless.

The deck was quiet for a moment as Stoick fumed. "I can lead the group back chief." Andor said behind Stoick. Agreeing, the riders began mounting up to return to Berk.

Ruffnut meanwhile was lying next to Eret, drooling over his muscles. "Ooh, I like that." she shamelessly flirted, touching Eret's arm.

"Ruffnut!" Stoick yelled, breaking her out of her trance.

"Ugh! Okay!" Ruffnut whined. She returned to her Zippleback head but not before kissing her hand and forcing her hand onto Eret's lips. The trapper leaded just lay there, completely unsure of what to think of everything.

...

Further north, two Striker dragons blazed across the aerial ocean above the perfectly flat could bank. Violet and Toothless glided over a bed of clouds, glowing in the low, Arctic sun.

The riders were quiet as Hiccup tried to think of what to do. Draven was trying to think of something to say to Hiccup to reassure her but the tense silence in the air between them made it difficult.

Out of pure frustration, Hiccup screamed as she waved her fists in the air. All she wanted to do was to help keep the peace, and yet her father was so hellbent on thinking peace was impossible. If war could be avoided, why wouldn't she take the chance. Why couldn't Stoick just support her.

Slumping back and resting on Toothless' back, Hiccup gazed up into the sky as she let out a breath.

Below her, Toothless could almost feel the frustration coming off of her. Looking up to his rider, Toothless let out a soft grumble, worried for Hiccup's wellbeing.

Partying his side, Hiccup reassuringly said to her dragon "Don't worry bud, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. I promise."

After a moment, Draven pulled Violet alongside Toothless and comfortingly said to Hiccup "You know he loves you. He just shows it by being a bit overprotective. You can't really blame him."

For a while, the two just enjoyed the quiet and took in the warm light of the sun, until a strange dark object began to pierce the clouds on Toothless' right side. "Uh, guys!" Toothless growled out, grabbing Violet and Draven's attention.

Turning to see what Toothless was staring at, Violet immediately began to growl as well and Draven quickly placed his hand on his sword's hilt. "Uh, we have a guest." Draven warned to get her attention.

Not actually noticing the dragon's growls out Draven's tone, Hiccup just thought her father may have caught up with her. That was after all where her thoughts still were.

"Aw, come on, Dad! Really?!" Hiccup whined. However as she sat back up, it wasn't her father she saw, but a mysterious person in thick brown and blue plated armour, with a spiked helmet, cape and seemingly standing on the clouds as they sailed right by the riders. Streaming ahead of Hiccup and Draven, the person disappeared back into the clouds.

"Okay. No sudden moves." Hiccup said softly to Toothless, Violet and Draven, while gently stroking Toothless side to keep him calm.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a large dragon, bigger than a Nightmare or Wraith burst out of the clouds right in front of Toothless and Violet, causing the two Strikers to scramble in the sir to stay up.

Looking up, Hiccup and Draven saw a large brown Stormcutter dragon circling them, with the mysterious person riding bareback and pointing their staff down to the riders. Circling back around to the front of the Strikers, the Stormcutter separated all four of his wings, beating them all and making the surrounding area around the Strikers increasingly turbulent.

"Hold on, hold on." Hiccup said to Toothless, wondering who this persons was or what they wanted.

Without even knowing it, and entire swarm of dragons had come up behind Hiccup and Draven with claws wide open. Then it happened.

A green Snafflefang closed in first on Hiccup and snatched her off of Toothless, and without her, Toothless couldn't stay balanced and dropped. A red Hobblegrunt tried to do the same with Draven, but the hybrid and his Skrill were able to react and dodge in time after seeing Hiccup grabbed.

"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup cried out as Toothless plummeted as she was carried off.

Violet set off several arcs of lightning to deter any other dragons trying to grab her rider, when Draven made a decision. "Violet, go help Toothless!" he ordered as he rolled off her side and transformed into his Pyro-Typhon form, and quickly feeling the weakening effects of sunlight.

The riders and their dragons were separated. Draven chased after Hiccup whilst trying to stay airborne and avoid getting caught, while Violet dove after Toothless.

Violet couldn't go any faster than gravity would have allowed her, and soon, Toothless crashed through the ice and into the cold Arctic waters. The Skrill hovered over the ice and landed softly as not to go through.

Toothless emerged out of the waters seconds later only to watch helplessly as his rider got carried off by a swarm. When Violet slowly approached the edge of the ice to help him out, the ice gave way and she fell in to. "Violet!" Toothless yelled out in shock as he swam over to her to help her stay afloat.

Both Strikers just clung to each other and the ice as they helplessly watched their riders disappear with the swarm. "Now what?" Violet coed as she looked to her mate.

Before Toothless could answer, another dragon swarm had arrived. A Tidal swarm. Getting wrapped up in the wings of several dozen Seashockers, Toothless and Violet were carried off, leaving nothing but Hiccup's helmet.


	4. Chapter 4: A mother never forgets

Sorry, another short chapter. The problem is with how httyd 2 plays itself out. It had a much faster pace than that of the first movie and it left little room for me to make adjustments or add scenes. Regardless, I hope you guys are still enjoying the story.

...

As persistent as Draven was, even he had his limits. Especially when trying to use his Typhon form in direct sunlight. He'd been chasing the mysterious rider and the dragon swarm to get to Hiccup for over five minutes already, and was only growing weaker with each passing second.

"Argh, just...need to...hang...on!" Draven groaned as he inched his way closer to the Snafflefang that grabbed Hiccup, all while trying to evade the other dragons. Unfortunately, Draven reached his limit. "Oh shit." he sarcastically muttered under his breath as he passed out in mid flight. Turning back to human state, Draven fell from the sky.

The surrounding dragons were actually waiting for this as they knew Wraiths and Pyro-Typhons couldn't handle sunlight. The same red Hobblegrunt from earlier dived after the hybrid and scooped him out of the air, returning to formation with the Snafflefang that had Hiccup.

The female rider in question watched the whole thing, unable to help from the clutches of the dragon carrying her. "Draven! DRAVEN!" hiccup called out, trying to wake her partner.

"Argh, that sucked." Draven groaned as he woke, squirming in the Hobblegrunt's claws to turn to Hiccup.

At this point, the two dragons carrying the riders had moved closer to the head of the formation with the Stormcutter, where Hiccup could get a clear view of the mysterious person. "HEY! YOU LEFT OUR DRAGONS BACK THERE! MINE CAN'T FLY ON HIS OWN! HE'LL DROWN!" Hiccup pleaded, hoping for this person to respond and possibly turn around.

It was all for naught as the person ignored Hiccup and lead the dragon swarm into an enormously large ice mountain. Maneuvering through the cave networks, the swarm eventually stopped and dropped the riders right in the middle of several dozen wild dragons.

Getting up, Hiccup rushed over to partner's side. "Drav! You okay?" she asked worryingly. "Never better." Draven groaned sarcastically as he was regaining the last of his strength.

Looking around at the herd of dragons in search of the mysterious person. "Hey! We have to head back for our dragons!" Hiccup called out to the mystery person. However, the two riders quickly had other more important things on their mind, like how the entire group of dragons around them began eyeing them up like lunch.

"Uh, we're on the same team here guys." Draven said to the dragons in dragonese. After seeing the dragons still moving closer, growling and bearing fangs, Hiccup nervously asked Draven "Um, what did they say."

"I'll give you three guesses. Hint number 1: they are wild dragons, and hint number 2: they're looking at us like an 'all you can eat buffet'." Draven answered as he and Hiccup were standing back to back. There was only one way for the riders to come out of this situation alive.

Reacting solely on instinct, Hiccup pulled out her sword, Inferno, whilst Draven pulled up his right sleeve, exposing his dragon arm.

Acting in unison, Hiccup ignited the blade of her sword whilst Draven intensified the glow of his arm, to give off the same level of brightness as Hiccup's sword.

Slowly, Hiccup swirled her sword and Draven rotated his arm, drawing the dragons they were facing into a trance with the slow motions and the mesmerising luminescence. From the corner of the cave, the mystery person was also finding these two riders intriguing. They were showing the dragons respect. They were actually gaining the dragons trust.

Calming the dragons down, the riders had to show the reptiles that they were one of them. Hiccup retracted her sword and reloaded her Zippleback gas cartridge. Again in unison, Hiccup began spraying the gas in a full 360 to mask herself in Zippleback scent. Draven did a similar move by engulfing himself in his shrouding smoke.

Suddenly, both clouds sparked at the same time. Hiccup ignited the Zippleback gas, giving the surrounding dragons the illusion of Hiccup being like a Zippleback. Draven's smoke dispersed, flaring his wings and revealing his glowing hybridised dragon form.

All the surrounding dragons were suddenly calm as if there were never a problem to start with. They saw that the two new people weren't threats at all, but offered respect. They showed it by being more dragon than human. To finish the bond of trust, Hiccup began approaching another Snafflefang with her palm extended, Draven -still in Typhon state- doing the same with a Deadly Nadder.

However before Hiccup and Draven could make the connection, the mysterious person appeared, coming out from the shadows of the cave. Growling deeply, Draven drew his blade and put himself in battle stance between Hiccup and the mystery person.

"Who are you?" Hiccup asked the person, somewhat worried that the situation might escalate. "The Dragon Thief? Drago Bludvist?" She asked again, trying to determine who this masked warrior was, but the warrior didn't respond. "Do you even understand what I'm saying?"

To show good trust to the guests and to test them, the warrior hit their staff into the ground, rattling the shells inside it. Two more dragons were summoned to the cave, one carrying Toothless and one carrying Violet.

Dropping the them to the ground, the two dragons disappeared while the two riders worryingly rushed over to their own dragons.

"Toothless! It's okay, it's okay." Hiccup said as she crouched by her Night Fury's side, hugging his snout. Giver he a reassuring lick, Hiccup calmly finished "I'm glad to see you too, bud. You really had me worried there."

Draven did the same with Violet, rushing over to her side. "Ugh, have I ever told you how much I hate water and ice?" Violet sarcastically grumbled. "Good to see you're still all cheery." Draven snickered at his dragon's way of saying she was okay.

Under the wild person's mask, their face would be showing a mix of confusion and surprise. Never had the individual seen dragons and other humans act so...friendly to each other. Best friends even.

Both dragons got up and shook themselves off as they saw the mysterious person standing in front of the riders. Turning towards the strange wild person, Toothless and Violet put themselves into battle stances as they forced their riders behind them.

Seeing the group feeling not only threatened, but obviously seeing Hiccup as the leader, the warrior shook their staff. The internal shells rattled, signaling all the dragons behind the warrior to light fire in their mouths and illuminate the area.

Slowly, the warrior inched their way closer to the outsiders, dropping the shield and staff to show good faith. Crawling on all fours, feral-like, the warrior approached Toothless and Violet first, casually waving his/her hands at the Striker's snouts.

In an instant, Toothless and Violet dropped the the ground and rolled over like playful pets. "What the.." Hiccup wondered aloud confusedly, when Draven answered her thoughts.

Draven's breathing became laboured, and he felt himself choking. "Dragon nip! Particle...state!" the hybrid coughed, dropping to the ground as he tried to force the grass particles out of his lungs.

With both dragons and the Wraith hybrid out the way, the warrior turned to Hiccup, slowly reaching their hand out to Hiccup's face. Out of caution and confusion, Hiccup tried to back away slightly and turned her head to the side, when she noticed something. The warrior's hands; they were female.

It was then that the warrior noticed something as well. The horizontal scar on Hiccup's jawline. Hearing the person gasp, Hiccup saw her sharply pull her hand away. Then she spoke. "Hiccup?"

Removing her helmet, Hiccup saw a women in possibly her late forties to early fifties, with auburn brown hair and forest green eyes, just like hers. "C-Could it be? After all these years? How is this possible?" the women wondered aloud with shock and surprise in her voice, and a weak smile on her lips.

Hiccup meanwhile was completely lost. Who was this woman? How did she know Hiccup's name? Was she the dragon thief? How was she controlling her dragons the way she was? Who Was She? "Uh, should I... should I know you?" was all to come out of Hiccup's mouth.

With those words, the woman's smile disappeared, and her shoulders sagged. "No. You were only a babe." she said weakly, obviously knowing something that was beginning to bother Hiccup.

Looking back to Hiccup, the woman finished "But a mother never forgets."

Mother. Mother. Mother. That word repeated itself again and again in Hiccup's mind. She couldn't even to begin to comprehend what she just heard. She was always told her mother was dead. Hiccup stammered back, tongue tied, mouth aghast and barely able to even breathe. This was her mother, Valka.

Draven was now recovering from the dragon nip. Gazing back up to the two females in front of him, even he could hardly believe what he was seeing. And it only made his head spin more with the fact that Hiccup and Valka were spitting images of each other.

Valka began thinking the last two minutes over. How Hiccup was able to so easily calm and bond with a wild dragon. How Hiccup and her Night Fury seemed like insuperable friends. How she seemed completely like someone who loved dragons. Then she had an idea.

Looking to the Night Fury and Skrill as well as the other end of the cave, Valka looked back to the two riders but more specifically her daughter. "Come..." she said with a grin forming on her lips.

The pack of dragons split in two as they offered a path for Valka. A path to an opening on the other end of the cave. Getting back up while still in his Pyro-Typhon form, Draven quietly said to his partner "I'll admit even I'm surprised. I didn't see that one coming."

Cautiously, Hiccup and Draven followed Valka with their dragons close behind.

...

Meanwhile, back out over the frozen North Seas, Stoick and Gobber were blasting through a thick hailstorm atop their dragons Skullcrusher and Grump trying to track Hiccup and Draven.

"Boar-headed!" Stoick said to his friend and an irritated tone. "Just like her mother! She could never stay put either."

"Ah, she's just twenty. And a Viking." Gobber tried to reassuringly say to his best friend. "I mean, could there be a worse combination? Ha! When I think of how stubborn and senseless YOU were back in the day..."

Pausing for a moment and comparing 20 year old Stoick to the one he knew today, Gobber sarcastically muttered "Oh, well, not much has changed, actually."

Stoick just let out a sigh at how determined he knew his daughter would get. "You know what she's like. She won't give up, Gobber. And if Hiccup finds Drago, before we find her..." the chief said, with the last part actually giving him chills.

"Bah! Nothing can hurt Hiccup so long as those other three are around." Gobber cheered, knowing Hiccup was in good hands, paws and claws. "I mean, they're a NIGHT FURY, SKRILL AND DRAVEN!"

However as Gobber finished his sentence, Stoick spotted something down below in the frozen sea. He spotted a large hole in the ice, like something had crashed into it, and something shining in the center.

Doubling back around, Stoick brought Skullcrusher in low to the ice and over the hole. In one swift motion, Stoick snatched up the floating item in the waters. It was Hiccup's helmet.

Gobber soon saw the helmet as well. It was a sight he could barely comprehend. Had Hiccup and Draven been attacked? Was Hiccup possibly injured? Where could they have gone? How far could they have gone? Were they maybe...

No. Stoick and Gobber couldn't think of things like that at a time like this. They had to stay positive. They knew Hiccup and Draven as well as their dragons are survivors.

Leaning down, Stoick held his daughter's helmet out for his Tracker dragon to smell. "Find her, Skullcrusher. Find her!" he firmly said to his dragon. Skullcrusher could hear the worry in his rider's voice, and took in the scent.

"Got it! Let's go Grump!" Skullcrusher roared to Grump, blasting off in the direction the scent had gone. "Yeah, coming." Grump lazily replied with a yawn as he followed.

...

Again, I'm sorry that this chapter is so short, but you have my word that the next chapter will be much longer. Chapter 5 will be up next weekend.


	5. Chapter 5: The dragon sanctuary

Sorry for the lateness of this chapter, but I was have some trouble with several scenes. Hope you guys like it.

...

"Hold on! Wait just a minute!" Hiccup pleaded as she, Draven and their dragons followed Valka through the cave network.

"This way." Valka said, heading deeper into the low lit caves.

"Come back here!" Hiccup pleaded again, just wanting Valka to explain what was going on.

"Come." Valka encouraged, maneuvering past several boulders in the cramped confined of the cave. Hiccup and Draven followed easy enough, but Toothless and Violet really had to squeeze.

"You can't just say something like that and run off!" Hiccup yelled, still in a baffled and in a confused state. "You're my MOTHER?! I mean, what the- do- do you grasp how insane it sounds?!"

"Come! Quickly!" Valka said again as she climbed up a small rise in the cave with her staff. The rise was too steep for Hiccup to climb however as she clawed at the stone but kept slipping. Draven was still in his dragon form luckily, and utilised the spikes on his wings. Pegging them into the walls, he held Hiccup by her waist and lifted she and himself up the rise.

"I have questions! Where have you been all this time?!" Hiccup asked as she and Draven continued to follow whilst their dragons just barely squeezed through the caves. "What have you been doing?! They said you were dead! Everyone thinks you were eaten by..."

But just as Hiccup said that, they reached the end of the cave and into an opening. Upon leaving the cave, both rider's jaws dropped at what truly was a sight to behold. A massive cavern with dense vegetation with blue ice forming it's roof, illuminating the cavern further with the light reflecting through it. But the best part, was the uncountable swarm of dragons that flew around the cavern living in peace and tranquility, seemingly uncaring of the fact that a human and a Wraith hybrid were in their midst. This place could only be described with one word; Sanctuary. "Dragons." Draven said, finishing Hiccup's sentence.

Seeing that they would be relatively safe, Draven turned back to human state but maintained his guard. It was then that noticed something, or rather someone. "There she is." he said in a cautionary growl.

Turning to see what he was looking at, the group saw Valka hanging off her Stormcutter, Cloudjumper, who in turn was hanging off the rock wall. "This is where you've been for twenty years?" Hiccup asked, still unsure of everything that was happening.

Smiling slightly, all Valka replied with was a friendly nod. "You've been rescuing them." Hiccup said, getting another nod and wider smile from her mother. "Unbelievable." Hiccup said in awe, staring out into the swarm of dragons.

"You're not upset?" Valka asked curiously, finding it interesting how she and her companion could be so calm and in awe in the middle of a dragon swarm. The average viking would no doubt be sent into a blood crazed frenzy.

"What? No. I don't know." Hiccup stuttered, still trying to piece things together. "It's a bit much to get my head around, to be frank. It's not every day you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante dragon lady." the young female rider blurted out.

"Oh, ha-ha-ha. At least I'm not boring... right?" Valka joked, trying to ease the tension in the air. Hooking onto one of Cloudjumper's wings, Valka's dragon set her back down on ground level.

"Well, I suppose there is that... one... specific... thing." Hiccup pondered as a young dragon nudged her side for affection.

"Do you… do you like it?" Valka asked curiously as she got closer to her daughter.

"I-I… I don't have the words." Hiccup stuttered, again in awe as she took in the sight of the sanctuary once more.

Meanwhile, behind the three riders, around a dozen dragons had surrounded Toothless and Violet, showing great interest in the two. Some were interested to see Toothless seeing as how rare Night Furies were, while others were staring at Violet and feeling aroused, not actually taking into account or realising that Violet was Toothless' mate.

This was made evident when some dragons tried to move even closer to the Skrill and take in her scent. "Hay Back Off! She's MINE!" Toothless roared out, scaring the dragons off. Some dragons were surprised to say the least. They could never have pegged a Night Fury and a Skrill to pair up together as mates. "Thanks." Violet said as she rubbed herself against Toothless' side. "Some of those guys were just creepy."

Valka was intrigued by the two striker dragons but mainly Toothless. Both were rare but she'd seen Skrills before. Night Furies however, she had never even seen one.

Approaching Toothless, Valka asked her daughter "Can-Can I...?" With a simple hand gesture, Hiccup gave her mother permission.

"Oh, he's beautiful!" Valka complemented as she kneeled before Toothless and scratched his snout. Taking in her scent, Toothless could smell that Valka not only had a very similar scent to that of Hiccup's, but she was very kind hearted. Rolling on his side, he rubbed up against Valka like a playful cat as his way of showing that he liked her.

"Oh, incredible! And he might very well be the last of his kind." Valka said, when she noticed the six small flaps under Toothless' jaw. "And look, he's your age! Ha, no wonder you get along so well."

Mimicking Toothless' behavior, Valka continued to study the Night Fury, when she saw him retract his teeth. "And retractable teeth! Ah! How did you manage to-" Valka asked her daughter in awe. "I found him in the woods. He was shot down and wounded." Hiccup answered plainly.

The idea of a wounded dragon only made Valka's skin crawl. "This Snafflefang lost his leg to one of Drago Bludvist's iron traps." Valka stated, gesturing to the large green dragon's back leg. "This Raincutter had her wing sliced by razor netting." she stated again, showing the dragon's shredded wing. "And this poor Hobblegrunt was blinded by a tree snare... then left to die alone and scared."

Leaving her own dragons' Valka moved to Toothless' synthetic tail. "And what of this? Did Drago or his trappers do this, too?" Valka asked.

Hiccup couldn't help but let out an uncomfortable, awkward laugh. "Heh. Well, crazy thing is... I'm actually the one who shot him down." Hiccup said, earning a surprised frown from her mother. "Hey, it's… it's okay though, he got me back. Right, bud?" Hiccup continued, scratching Toothless' jaw and playing with him. "You couldn't save all of me when you and Draven caught me, could you? You just had to make it even." Hiccup reassuringly said, pulling her hair braid back and revealing the burns on the left side of her neck, leading to behind her ear.

"What, you think it was intentional?" Toothless joked as he scooped Hiccup up and onto his saddle. "Yeah, funny his you two laugh at the memory of the three of us plummeting into the fiery inferno of Red Death's carcass." Draven sarcastically joked as well.

Speaking of Draven, Valka was also interested to see him seeing as his he was half human and half dragon himself. "I remember you Draven, when you were still a babe." Valka kindly said to the young hybrid. "Last I saw you, you had just begun to walk and talk. How have your parents been?" Valka asked.

After a quiet moment, Draven plainly replied "Dead." An awkward silence fell upon the group for a moment. "Killed by the very Wraith that made me what I am." Draven finished as he pulled off his right glove and gazed to his hand for a second. "However, I was only exposed to the Wraith's venom for nine seconds instead of ten. The result was hybridisation instead of transformation." Draven added, thinking back on that day, ten years ago.

"As much as I miss them, it wasn't all bad though." Draven reassuringly said as he looked back to Valka. "I know that my parents did love me at least and have have few regrets with them, and if not for that fateful day, Hiccup and I wouldn't have become dragon riders"

Speaking of dragon riding, Valka looked back to Violet and Toothless and wondered something. "What did your father think of your Night Fury friend?" Valkaasked Hiccup atop her Night Fury.

"Ah, he didn't take it all that well." Hiccup said in a low tone. "But then... he changed. They all did. Pretty soon everyone back home had dragons of their own."

"If only it were possible." Valka replied as he looked at Toothless, thinking of the idea of dragons and vikings working together as a massive improbability.

"No, really." Hiccup said, trying to tell her mother that she and Draven had changed Berk.

"Believe me, I tried, as well." Valka said firmly. "But people are not capable of change, Hiccup. Some of us... were just born different."

*flashback*

_Berk was a land of kill or be killed, but I believed peace was possible. _

In the midst of a heavy dragon raid, Valka was in the streets, trying to stop fighting where ever she could, when she saw a Monstrous Nightmare get shot down.

As it hit the ground, one viking rushed over with axe in hand intent on killing the stoker dragon, when Valka intervened. "Stop! You'll only make it worse!" Valka pleaded, giving the stoker the time it needed to escape. Shrugging her off, the viking went back to fighting other dragons.

_It was a very unpopular opinion. _

Valka's attention was then pulled back to her house when she saw a large Stormcutter break in. "Hiccup!" Valka said in panic as she rushed home.

_Then, one night, a dragon broke into our house, finding you in the cradle._

"What's this? A human infant? Hmm, she seems kind off...cute. Innocent even." the Stormcutter said to himself as he slowly began rocking Hiccup's cradle.

_I rushed to protect you, but what I saw... was proof of everything I believed._

Upon hearing Valka enter the room, the Stormcutter abruptly turned, accidentally scratching Hiccup on her jaw.

_This wasn't a vicious beast, but an intelligent, gentle creature, whose soul reflected my own._

"You must be the mother. Don't worry miss, I'm not with the other raiders. I here of my own curiosity." the Stormcutter said, knowing the human couldn't understand him but showing his kindness in his body language.

Suddenly, a large axe blazed between Valka and the Stormcutter, grazing the dragon above his eye.

"Valka, run!" Stoick yelled out as the Stormcutter turned to him in rage. With one breath, the Stormcutter set the house ablaze, chasing Stoick away.

"No! Don't!" Valka pleaded, tugging the dragon's wing. Getting his attention the dragon turned back to Valka and was intrigued at how she behaved. How she was trying to stop the violence between dragon and viking. It was something the Stormcutter would occasionally think about himself.

"Hold on!" Stoick yelled again as he doubled back to rescue Hiccup.

The Stormcutter however had other ideas. "I know you don't understand me, but you have to trust me human. I need to take you to my Alpha." the dragon said as he grabbed Valka and turned to the exit. "No! Ah, Stoick!" Valka cried out in panic.

Grabbing Hiccup, Stoick turned to see the dragon taking Valka out the hole in the roof.

"Valka!" Stoick shouted in horror as he rushed to the dragon, but was too late. The dragon had disappeared into the night sky along with his wife.

*flashback ends*

"You and your father nearly died that night, all because I couldn't kill a dragon." Valka said, feeling somewhat shamed.

"Yeah, it runs in the family." Hiccup comfortingly said, remembering the day she first met Toothless. The day she let him live.

"It broke my heart to stay away, but I believed you'd be safer if I did." Valka said again, regret and sadness showing in her voice.

"How did you survive?" Hiccup asked.

"Oh, Cloudjumper never meant to harm me." Valka said as she lead Hiccup, Draven smd their dagons to the edge of the platform they were on. "He must've thought I belonged here. In the home of the great Bewilderbeast! The alpha species."

Looking down, the riders saw a dragon unlike anything they had ever seen. A snow white tidal dragon with huge tusks, bright blue eyes, and reddish protrusions all over his body. 'Massive' would be too small a word to describe it "One of the very few that still exist. Every nest has its queen or tyrannical prince but this is the king of all dragons. With his icy breath, this graceful giant built our nest. A safe haven for dragons everywhere."

"Wait, that's the ice spitter?" Hiccup asked in shock and surprise. "He's responsible for all that destruction?" she said, remembering the ruined trapper fortress.

"He protects us. We all live under his care. And his command." Valka explained, when she noticed several infant Scuttleclaws playing around by the great dragon's face. "All but the babies, of course... who listen to no one!" she said with a chuckle as the small dragons were jumping around on the Alpha's tusks.

Waking up, the Alpha saw all the kids playing around on him. "Come on kids. Run along now." the Alpha said with his deep and commanding yet benevolent voice. Gently, he nudged the baby Dravon's off when he smelled something above him with Valka. "Guests?" he said as he stood up and turned to the source of the scent.

Upon turning, the Alpha quickly saw Valka and two new humans and their dragons. Judging from the scents, the female human was no doubt Valka's daughter, while the make had the scent of Wraiths within him.

"I've lived among them for twenty years, Hiccup, learning their ways, discovering their secrets." Valka said as the Bewilderbeast approached. Out of respect, Valka, Toothless, Violet and even Draven bowed. However, upon seeing the Pyro-Typhon bow, the Alpha couldn't help but chuckle slightly.

"Why do you bow young one?" The Alpha asked Draven. The hybrid looked back up with a small level of confusion in his eyes, until Alpha clarified "You are human before you are dragon are you not? You and you dragons are our are our guests. There's no need to stand on ceremony."

"An Alpha that sees other dragons as his equals?" Violet whispered to Toothless. "Never heard that one before."

Playfully, the Alpha blew some frost onto the two riders as Draven stood back up. "Ha-ha, he likes you two." Valka chuckled, as she watched Hiccup and Draven shake the ice off. "Wow." was all Hiccup could say at the sight if the monumental tidal dragon.

Leaving the group on the cliff alone, the Alpha continued on about his business. "You two must be hungry." Valka asked her daughter and Draven. "Uh, yeah. We could eat." Hiccup replied.

"Good. It's feeding time."

...

Meanwhile, far out in the ocean down south, the mother dragon riders of Berk hadn't actually returned home. Andor had led them to a small iceberg on the outskirts of Berk territory lying in wait for Stoick and Gobber to bring back Hiccup and Draven.

"I don't like it. They should've been back with Hiccup by now." Andor worryingly said to the group as they reclined on the iceberg.

"I don't like it either." Ruffnut whined. "Eret, Son of Eret was the man of my dreams. My everything!"

"But, baby, I grew facial hair for you." Snotlout said in shame, running his hand over his tiny mustache. "Me, too." Fishlegs added, feeling somewhat defeated as well.

"What if Drago shot them down? What if they need our help?" Andor wondered, feeling the nees to go out and help his friends. "We have to find them."

"Wait, wait. What? But Stoick said..." Fishlegs said in a confused and panicking tone. He could never have pinned Andor as the type to disobey a direct order from Stoick.

"It doesn't matter what he said, if they've all been captured. Come on!" Andor firmly replied, shifting into the sky a moment later with the other riders close behind.

...

Eret and his trappers were still on their ship, aimlessly trudging through the ice to get to Drago's camp. One problem though; they still didn't have any dragons. "Do we go back?" one of Eret's deckhands asked nervously.

"We've nowhere to go! Nothing to sell! And no heads to call our own!" Eret shouted to his men, furious that he couldn't catch the Night Fury, Skrill or Draven. His head was also still sore from when Gobber hit him, and he was holding a block of ice to his head. "If we don't turn up with dragons and fast-"

Just as he said that, Stormfly swooped in out of nowhere and snatched Eret off the deck. She was out of range for any of the trapper weapons long before Eret's men could react. "Careful what you wish for!" Andor joked as Stormfly gained altitude.

"What is this?!" Eret demanded, surprised, shocked and wondering why the riders had returned.

"A kidnapping." Andor plainly replied.

Sneaking up from underneath, Ruffnut grabbed onto Eret's leg clingy-like. "Yay! Can he ride with me? Can he? Can he?" she pleaded in an excessively possessive tone.

Steering Stormfly away from Ruffnut, Andor said to the muscular trapper "You're gonna show us the way to Drago."

"And help Dragon Riders sneak into Drago's camp?" Eret said, thinking that not only were these riders idiotic, but it would be suicide for him as well. "Just kill me now." Eret sulked.

"That can be arranged." Andor said deviously. "Stormfly, drop him."

Opening her talons, Stormfly dropped Eret from her clutches. Eret began to fall back down to the sea, plummeting like a rock. He knew he wouldn't survive a fall from this height.

"Good girl!" Andor said, giving his dragon a scratch. "Stormfly, fetch."

Screaming his lungs out, Eret gave up. "ALL RIGHT! OKAY! I'LL TAKE YOU TO DRAGO!" the trapper begged, pleading for someone to save him.

Snatching up the trapper yet again, Stormfly returned to formation. "Ha, works every time." Andor victoriously said to himself with a wide smirk.

...

Back north, Toothless and Violet with their riders were following Cloudjumper and Valka out to sea, away from the sanctuary. As they reach a large body of water between all the icebergs, Draven heard the distinctive sound of many reptilian wings beating. Turning around, he saw that the entire dragon swarm from the Alpha's nest were behind them. "Never gets old, seeing a swarm that large." Draven commented.

Looking at what Draven was staring at, Hiccup saw the swarm as well, and began to wonder. "Hey, I-I thought we were going to eat!" Hiccup called out to her mother ahead of them.

"Oh, we are!" Valka cheerfully replied as she turned and gestured for the entire swarm to stop. She then looked down to the waters below.

Looking down as well, Draven and Hiccup saw several Seashockers and Thunderdrums swirling and herding a massive school of fish into a single tight formation. Seconds later, the Alpha burst forth from the seas, catching the entire school in his jaws. "LUNCH TIME EVERYONE!" the Alpha called out to his swarm, blowing all the fish into the skies for the dragons to indulge on.

Hiccup and Draven had to admit it. The Alpha jumping out the ocean, blowing all those fish into the air, and the dragon swarm taking it's fill was truly a Skynet to behold. Valka couldn't help but laugh at her daughter's and Draven's expressions.

Looking down to their dragons, the riders saw that Toothless and Violet were salivating at their mouths. "Bert I can catch more than you." Violet playfully said to her mate, with a hint of competition in her voice. "You're on!" Toothless replied as the two dragons went into a steep dive, grabbing as many fish as they could. If not for their riding gear, Hiccup and Draven would have been torn from their seats at the sheer speed their strikers dived at. In the end, they had caught about the same number of fish.

However, just as Toothless and Violet followed Cloudjumper out of the swarms formation, Draven began to feel a tingling sensation in his right arm as it began to clinch. Violet looked to her rider and could tell what he was sensing. Wraiths were near.

Pulling up alongside Valka, Draven asked her "You wouldn't by any chance have Wraiths in your swarm, would you?" Looking to the west, Valka answered "Not in the swarm no, but their are a few of them in the ice packs out to the west, but they keep to themselves. Why do you ask?"

Looking to his arm for a moment and then to the west, Draven replied "Let's just say my curiosity usually gets the better if me. There's something I must do." Looking back to the females, Draven finished "You two go on without me. We'll catch up back at the sanctuary."

With that, Violet broke formation, heading west with her Pyro-Typhon rider.

...

While Draven headed west, Hiccup was thinking about how amazing the northern territories were. The thought brought her back to how large the world actually was. "Something on your mind Hiccup?" Valka asked.

Gesturing to land, Hiccup answered her mother "Something I want to show you. It's something I've been working on."

Landing on a stable iceberg, Hiccup dismounted Toothless and pulled out her map. "Over the last two years, Draven and I have been charting the surrounding areas around Berk." she said as she began unfolding her map. Valka knew where this was going however, and decided to surprise her daughter while she was busy unfolding her map.

Hiccup continued "Draven used Berk to explore the eastern waters, and from Dragon Island, I found these other western areas of the Archipelago…"

But when Hiccup looked back to her mother, she saw that Valka wasn't looking at her map, but was instead sketching what appeared to be other lands in the snow around her map. "Wow." Hiccup gasped. Made sense. Valka had been alone with dragons for 20 years. Why wouldn't she know the surrounding lands and know more territories than Hiccup.

"Oh, we're drawing again?" Toothless said enthusiastically as he grabbed a nearby icicle and began dragging it through the snow. Valka chuckled as she and Cloudjumper looked at the Night Fury confusedly.

Like he had done five years ago with the branch in the cove when he and Hiccup bonded, Toothless playfully twisted and swirled around the snow, drawing over Valka's map until he was finished. However when he tried to drop the ice, he couldn't. It froze to his tongue. "Uh, Hiccup? Little help here!" Toothless whined.

Laughing at her dragon, Hiccup simply went over to Toothless and used her swords fire blade to carefully melt the ice off.

..

Progressing through the day and enjoying their time, Hiccup and Valka had found some heavy updrafts by a cliff side were two dozen dragons had congregated.

As the drafts came up, the dragons leapt of the cliff and extended their wings, catching the wind and gracefully levitating in the air. Toothless and Cloudjumper joined in, thoroughly enjoying themselves with the refreshing breeze of the updraft.

Valka then remembered what she had said to Hiccup earlier that day, about not being boring. She had an idea.

Standing up on Cloudjumper, she walked over his wings and jumped onto an adjacent dragon. With the force of the updrafts, she was able to walk on the wings without them giving way.

She continually did this as her daughter inquisitively watched her. Valka did a full loop around Toothless as she walked from dragon to dragon, until she eventually doubled back to the Night Fury. Jumping off of a Nadder, Valka landed on Toothless' right wing, and crawled across, passing Hiccup and falling off the left wing onto Cloudjumper.

The updrafts began to die down, and the two riders broke formation from the other dragons as they climbed into the heavens. It was that feeling of open space and being able to connect with so many dragons while having fun that Valka and Hiccup absolutely loved.

"Oh, when I'm up here, I don't even feel the cold, I just feel…" Valka said, trying to describe the sensation she felt. "Free." Hiccup finished.

Quiet for a moment, Valka took in a deep breath. It was the breath if freedom. "This is what it is to be a dragon, Hiccup." the mother rider expressed.

"It's all well and good to call yourself a dragon." Hiccup said with a mischievous grin. "But can you fly?"

With that, Hiccuo leapt off of Toothless into a nosedive. Valka's eyes couldn't go wide enough. Had she just watched her daughter try to commit suicide? Valka watched in horror as Hiccup fell, wondering his she could sound so cheerful at the idea of a dive.

Then with in swift motion, Hiccup deployed her wing suit into a high speed glide. "Ha-ha, woohoo! Wooo-oo!" Hiccup cheered.

Valka's shock instantly changed to one of pleased surprise. She had to admit that what Hiccup just did was rather impressive. Cloudjumper however, saw the stunt as reckless. "What the?! Are you going to do something!?" Cloudjumper scolded to Toothless.

Looking back to the Stormcutter with a sly grin, Toothless devilishly said back "What? Jealous that my rider can do that?"

Cloudjumper still wasn't pleased. What if his rider's daughter got hurt. "Oh alright, I'll go get her." Toothless said as he and Cloudjumper chased after Hiccup.

Hiccup meanwhile was have the time of her life like she usually does when she uses her wing suit. Rolling onto her back, she wanted to see her mother's expression, but all she saw was empty sky.

Seeing something out the corner of her eye, Hiccup looked to her right and saw that Valka and Cloudjumper had already caught up, and Valka was clearly impressed.

Seeing Toothless behind her, Hiccup rolled onto her stomach to allow for Toothless to catch her. Hiwevr as she did so, all she saw ahead of her was a colossal snow covered mountain. "Ah! Oh no. Toothless!" Hiccup called out for help. "I'm coming!" Toothless yelled back.

Just at the final second, Toothless caught Hiccup and protectively closed his songs around her as they crashed through the snow filled hole at the top of the mountain.

As the Night Fury rolled to a halt, he opened his wings and arms to see if Hiccup was alright, but only to find them empty. "Hiccup!?" Toothless called out worryingly, but a second later, Hiccup burst out of the snow with a wide smile on her face and a very cheerful, energetic mood. "Ha! Woo-hoo! Man, almost! We just about had it that time!"

Slightly annoyed that Hiccup always took their crashed so lightly, Toothless playfully took his revenge by sweeping his tail along the ground and tripping up his rider. Valka soon landed nearby and rushed over to her daughter to see men if she was alright

Reaching Hiccup, Valka saw that her daughter was completely fine and was in a calm and cheery mood. But what Valka couldn't take her eyes off was Hiccup's wing suit. "Oh, incredible." she marveled as she helped dust the snow off of Hiccup.

"Well, not bad yourself." Hiccup complimented back, at how her mother moved so gracefully between her dragons.

As Valka was getting the last of the snow off her daughter, she ran her hand over Hiccup's cheek. "All this time, you took after me." Valka said in relieved realisation, but also remembered his she was never around for Hiccup when she grew up. "And where was I? I'm so sorry, Hiccup. Can we start over? Will you give me another chance? I can teach you all that I've learned these past twenty years." she said, hoping that her daughter would accept her apology.

Moving to Toothless, Valka gave a demonstration of what she had learned. "Like…" she said as she massaged a tiny spot on Toothless' neck. "What are you...Ah, that feels right." Toothless cooed as his spinal fins popped out, allowing them to split.

"Now you can make those tight turns." Valka said as she stepped back and allowed the Night Fury to look at his back.

Toothless was more than happy. Upon seeing his new fins, all he wanted to do was get back in the air to test them out. "Hay Hiccup! Look at these! Imagine the maneuvers we could do with these!" Toothless purred excitedly as he kept showing off his flows to his riders by repeatedly tensing them and relaxing them. "Did you know about this?" Hiccup asked her dragon, not actually expecting an answer.

"Every dragon has it's secrets, and I'll show them all to you." Valka said as she stood next to Hiccup as the two watched Toothless enjoy himself with his new flaps. "We'll unlock every mystery, find every last species, together, as mother and daughter."

Hiccup's eyes grew wide with excitement. This was obviously something she wanted to do. To explore the world and learn more about dragons, and doing it by her mother's side would only make it that much better. "This gift we share, Hiccup... it bonds us. This is who you are. Who we are. We will change the world for all dragons! We will make it a better, safer place!" Valka finished.

"Yeah! YES! That sounds... amazing." Hiccup said, clearly happy at the idea. For Valka however, it was a sign that Hiccup had accepted her apology, or didn't mind that she had been living with dragons for 20 years. Sharing in Hiccup's joy, Valka pulled her daughter into a tight embrace. Something she wished she could have done more of before she was taken from Berk.

For several quiet moments, the two female riders were still as they enjoyed the silence and held each other tight. Eventually, Hiccup stepped back. "Ah, this is so great! Now you and I can go talk to Drago, together." she said, sounding rather enthusiastic and optimistic about her idea.

"What?" Valka questioned with a confused laugh. "There's no talking to Drago."

"But we have to-" Hiccup tried to plead.

"No." Valka said firmly. "We must protect our own. Now come on, we should be getting back."

Hiccup actually felt disheartened. All she was trying to do was to avoid conflict and persuade this Drago not to fight. Now not only her father, but her mother as well was trying to deter her from 'talking' to Drago. Then it began to click for Hiccup. Maybe Drago truly was someone who couldn't be reasoned with. Maybe their only solution was truly to go to war.

These questioned swirled in her head, until the sound of Toothless' rumbling caught her attention. Turning around, all she saw was her dragon flexing his new flaps with a wide smile on his face, eager to take to the air again.

...

Draven had been searching the western icepacks for a few hours now. The Skrill and hybrid were curious as to what the Alpha Wraith had said. Were Wraiths truly passive dragons, or was that a lie and were they still just mindless beasts from the depths of hell?

As they were searching, Draven had noticed something. "You're awfully quiet Violet. Something on your mind?" Letting out a deep breath, Violet nervously answered "Well, Valka said that their are a 'few' Wraiths out here. Now we've slain around half a dozen Wraiths in the past but they we're wall one at a time. What happens if we run into a whole pack?"

Draven was actually trying to avoid even thinking about that possibility. "Then lets just hope that Alpha Wraith wasn't bullshitting us." Draven answered, trying to hide his own nervousness.

For about another twenty minutes, the Skrill continued to search the west icepacks, with still no sings of any Wraiths. Made sense. The Alpha Wraith did say that Wraiths are typically hard to find.

However, just as the two were about to give up and turn back, the tingling in Draven's arm began to intensify. "We got incoming!" the hybrid warned.

Looking over his shoulder, the hybrid saw a Wraith roughly the size of a Deadly Nadder coming towards them, with three full sized Wraiths just behind. All these Wraiths were flying in and out of cloud cover to avoid as much sunlight as they could. "Uh, Violet. Please could you keep to the Striker namesake and MOVE IT!"

Unfortunately for her, she couldn't ascend higher to the safety of the sun, as heavy crosswinds were blowing, and she had to keep a low altitude. Beating her wings as hard as she could, Violet accelerated like a missile, but Wraiths were known for their tenacity. Violet ducked, dived and rolled in and out of both clouds and between ice bergs, trying to evade her pursuers.

From what Draven was hearing, he could tell that there was some kind of disagreement behind him. He could hear that the three rear Wraiths were yelling at the smaller lead Wraith. Draven couldn't make out what they were saying but it mattered little to him. The golden Wraith may have claimed that Wraiths weren't hostile, but the hybrid wasn't taking any chances.

For about a minute, the chase continued, but the Wraiths weren't giving up. Out of desperation, Violet looked back to her rider and asked "Please tell me you have a cloud-screen ready!?" Ungloving his right hand, Draven replied with a grin "Been charging it all day!"

With on motion, Draven fired a plasma shot ahead of him. When it detonated however, it didn't release an explosion like normal. It released a large black and purple cloud that had several bolts of lightning arcing around it. Like Wraiths, Draven could crest artificial lightning storms to conceal sunlight, but unlike Wraiths, he couldn't summon them on demand and they only covered several hundred square meters.

Making their move, Violet dived through the cover of the miniature storm and into the icepacks. With Draven's Wraith-sense, they quickly found and ice cave to take shelter in. Their plan was also a fifty-fifty gamble. It was the chance that they might lose the Wraiths, or the Wraiths might track them into the cave.

Taking cover behind thick prices of foggy ice, Violet and Draven waited to see if their gamble worked. The odds weren't in their favor though, as the sound of beating wings grew louder and louder from the entrance of the ice cave. Fearing the worst, the Skrill and Pyro-Typhon readied themselves for a potential fight.

Yet strangely enough when the Wraiths arrived, they didn't seem to be in any kind of hunting or tracking mode. It was as if they simply landed in the cave to rest themselves. Then they spoke.

"Dana! What have your father and I told you about flying off like that!?" a female Wraith seemed to scold the smaller, younger one. "I'm sorry mama, I just wanted someone to play with. It gets boring in our cave." the younger female whined.

The two other Wraiths then stepped forward. "Don't worry about it Maree. Our daughter's can look after herself. Besides, my brother always makes sure of that as well."

This was foreign to Draven and Violet. They had managed to piece together that this was some kind of family, but they acted just like a human family busy bickering. Adjusting himself, Draven accidentally scraped on some ice, grabbing the attention of the four Fear class dragons. "Who's there?" the mother asked.

The larger male Wraith had moved forwards and shoved the younger female behind he and the other two. "Dana, stay behind Maree and Gale." the Wraith said rather protectively.

The larger male which was the brother of the father was able to figure it out though. "Listen, we don't want to hurt you. I know we Wraiths may seem scary, but our kid here was just looking for a playmate. Were sorry for any distress we may have caused." the largest Wraith called out.

Stepping out from cover while making sure his right arm was exposed, Draven confronted the four glowing dragons. "Hmph. I must say I am surprised to say the least. I've never thought I'd meet more friendly Wraiths before. I mean, I met an Alpha yesterday but I didn't think what she was saying was true. That most Wraiths retain their humanity." Draven said, maintaining his guard.

It was then that the father Wraith realised. "Wait, I know you. Yeah, you're Draven Mothlyn the Pyro-Typhon and Wraith slayer." the dragon said somewhat excitedly.

"Let's get something straight." Draven interrupted. "I never intended to name myself that but it stuck with me ever since my second Wraith. And I've only ever killed around six Wraiths."

It was then that Maree, the older female, laughed slightly and replied "Oh don't act like we'll be offended by the fact that you've killed another Wraith. Its natural for our kind to kill each other, but only if it's a hostile Wraith."

Violet soon stepped out as well and joined her rider. "A Wraith... Family?" Violet wondered aloud. The father Wraith understood her confusion and clarified "Ah yes. All of us were originally a normal human family part if a normal viking village, until a Wraith attack. We managed to defeat the Wraith but we didn't know about the poisonous gas that Wraiths secrete when they die. My brother, Kellon, my wife Maree, and our two year old daughter, Dana were all infected. We barely escaped with our lives." the father Wraith explained. "We fled north, until we found the dragon sanctuary. The Bewilderbeast offered us a home but the other dragons somewhat disagreed to the idea of living with Wraiths. We've lived out here ever since for the last three years."

Draven and Violet were actually enjoying what they were hearing. They actually liked the idea that not all Wraiths were bloodthirsty monsters, but retained their human characteristics. Seeing his face, the larger Wraith couldn't help buy ask "If you don't mind me saying, what are you currently thinking?"

Coming clean, Draven answered "In all honesty, there has always been some part of me that has always hoped that Wraiths can be reasoned with. I am after all half Wraith. The thing is, I've always been a dragon sympathiser, and a small part if me has always regretted killing those other Wraiths, knowing that all of there were originally normal people just like I was. But now I know that there is actually hope for the Wraith species."

The Wraiths felt generally pleased to hear what the hybrid had said, which was even more surprising considering his past. "Well, we better be heading back." the father, Gale, said. "It was a pleasure to meet you Draven Mothlyn, and for what it's worth, we're sorry for what Wraiths have done to you in your past."

Nodding, the Wraiths left the cave and returned home to their cave, while Draven and Violet returned to the sanctuary. "That went well." Violet commented in a relieved tone. Intrigued by the days events, the duo returned to the sanctuary as the sun began to set.

...

Let me know what you guys think of the story so far. Also, (SPOILER ALERT) have been possibly considering a lemon for the next chapter when our dragon riding couple meet back at the sanctuary. One problem though. I have never written anything like that before and I'm somewhat uncomfortable with writing it myself. However, if any of you guys have any good ideas for that scene, or want to help me write it, give me a shout.

If someone does get back to me, then the next chapter will be slightly delayed while I piece it together. If not, then there will be no lemon and I'll just insinuate that it happened. Let me know what you guys think.


	6. Chapter 6: Reunions and growing threats

So since nobody had any suggestions or offered to help me on my request, there will be no lemon. I did add some 'closeness' so I hope that suffices.

...

The sun was slowly setting over the horizon when the dragon riders decided to return to the sanctuary. Valka and Hiccup had reached the dragon sanctuary first. From their perch, they could see ever dragon of the nest bunkering down for the night, whilst Valka's Bewilderbeast circled the nest several times, checking on his people to make sure they were alright. Valka and Cloudjumper did the same, patrolling the sanctuary, making sure the dragons were comfortable and that their position was secure.

While Valka and Cloudjumper were off on patrol, Hiccup had found a small isolated and private cave. "This will do." she said to herself as she got a fire going. Taking a fish from one of Toothless' saddle bags, Hiccup took it over to the fire whilst the Night Fury remained outside. Skewering the fish and placing it over the fire, Hiccup removed the shoulder, arm, and chest plates of her armour.

For a while, things were relatively quiet as Hiccup worked on her map while she was cooking the fish, until the sound of beating wings outside the cave caught her attention. "And you thought we'd get here before them." Hiccup heard Draven say to Violet. Even though she couldn't see him from the inside of the cave, she knew he was talking to his dragon merely by his tone.

Seeing Toothless resting by the cave entrance as well as the smell of cooking fish coming from within the cave, Draven left Violet outside as he entered to see his beloved sitting by the fire staring up at him.

"Well someone's in a good mood." Draven said, seeing Hiccup smiling brightly. "Well, why wouldn't I be? I got my mother back." Hiccup replied as she gave Draven a welcoming hug.

Taking off his coat, the two sat back down by the fire as Hiccup got back to working on her map, while Draven checked on their meal over the flames. "So did you find anything out there?" Hiccup asked. "Did you find any Wraiths?"

Draven was quiet for a moment as he seemed to be lost in his thoughts and memories. "Honestly, I'm not even sure." Draven answered. "Were they actually Wraiths? Everything the golden Wraith said, and what Violet and I saw today. It has me questioning everything I know about the world's most feared dragon."

"Why? What were they like?" Hiccup asked curiously.

"In a word; harmonious." Draven answered plainly. "They seemed exactly like normal people. The kind that would welcome lost travellers into their homes. The friendly kind."

Hiccup was in awe of the idea. "Amazing." she whispered. "Fishlegs would sure want to hear about that. He would after all have to make the changes in the Book of Dragons now."

While the two riders were talking about Draven's day, the hybrid was beginning to notice something in Hiccup. "Something bothering you, love?" Draven asked as he moved around the fire to sit next to Hiccup. He could see that despite Hiccup being overjoyed from meeting her mother, she was somewhat stressed and bothered.

For a time, Hiccup was quiet. She simply gazed into the fires as questions swirled in her head. To try and comfort her, Draven moved behind Hiccup to gently massage her neck.

After about a minute of Hiccup getting mesmerised by the relaxing feeling of the massage, she eventually answered "Despite how different my mother is to my father, they just had to share one thing in common." Hiccup paused for a moment, leaning her shoulders backwards into Draven's fingers, feeling herself loosening up.

"My mother too, is against the idea of talking to Drago." Hiccup finished.

The two were still for some time as Hiccup slowly began to relax whilst Draven began to think. He began to think if what Stoick had said. If Drago truly was someone who couldn't be reasoned with. Shoving those thoughts aside, Draven tried not to think about that possibility. He and Hiccup were after all peace keepers, and would do everything in their power to stop a war.

'But what if we talk to him and it doesn't work' Draven thought to himself.

Draven pulled his hands back, causing Hiccup to lean back again so she was laying on Draven's lap, looking up at him. Gazing into her eyes for a time, Draven eventually said "How about you and I head out early tomorrow morning and find Drago. We talk to him if we can, and if things go sour, we get out as fast as possible. We are after all the riders of a Night Fury and a Skrill, so speed isn't an issue."

Adjusting herself so she wasn't looking at Draven upsidedown, Hiccup reached out and touched Draven's cheek. She smiled radiantly. She felt comforted by how Draven always stood by her side. "Okay." Hiccup said softly.

Hiccup placed her arms around Draven's neck while he had his arms around her back, one arm finding it's way under Hiccup's blouse. Getting lost in each other's eyes once again, Hiccup and Draven pulled each other in for a deep and passionate kiss, holding and caressing each other as the golden glow of the evening sun gave way to the peaceful shadows of night.

...

Far to the east, as the sun was disappearing over the horizon, the dragon riding gang was approaching the location of Drago's camp, thanks to the direction Eret provided. Though it wasn't like he had any choice, or was in any position to negotiate of lie.

Finding a massive collection of icebergs and icepacks, the dragons entered a giant ice cave and followed the path for several twists and bends until they reached and open area. "We're here." Eret said to Andor.

Dropping Eret in the snow, Stormfly circled back around and pinned the trapper to the ground. "Agghh! Okay! I got you here, now get this thing off me!" Eret yelled frustratingly.

"Never take a toy from a dragon." Andor sarcastically said with a smirk. "Don't you know anything?"

"Gah! Why does this keep happening to me?" Eret cursed to himself as the female Nadder wrapped her wings around him tightly like a child and went to sleep.

Moving up the rise where they landed, the gang looked down to a truly disturbing sight. Nearly five dozen heavily armed and armoured warships scattered across the lakes, with a single mother ship in the center. This was Drago's army. In front of the mother ship, was a swirling soup of churning water. "What's down there?" Andor wondered aloud.

Being the expert of the group, Fishlegs pulled out his dragon statistic cards that he kept on hand to they and identify what could possibly be down in the water. "Large diameter bubbles, massive lungs, cold water deep dweller, I'm thinking class five leviathan, maybe six." he said, dreading the idea of what leviathan working for Drago's army.

Back with the gang's dragons, Stormfly, the Tracker dragon of the group, heard something. Hearing trouble, she stepped off of Eret and bolted into the air. Meatlug woke up as well and saw Stormfly take off. "Stormfly, where...Trouble!" the Gronckle growled out. "Meatlug! What's wrong, girl?" Fishlegs said as the gang turned around.

However just as they did, Drago's perimeter scouts made their move and broke cover, coming from all sides. Taking their blowpipes, they all fired in perfect unison, incapacitating all the gang's dragons in mere seconds.

"Don't move!" the guards yelled as they surrounded the gang. Knowing there was no way out for how vastly outnumbered they were, the gang had no choice but to stand down.

...

Later

Tying up the Berkian gang and chaining up their dragons, the mercenaries had taken the group as well as Eret to the lead ship. The mother ship.

Towards the front of the ship was a mysterious man cloaked in black dragon skin, long black dreadlocks and a hooked spear. From the front of the ship, he gazed down into the swirling waters.

"Drago!" Eret said cheerfully yet also nervously, getting the mercenary lord's attention.

"Get off me!" Eret said, shrugging his handlers off. "Ha-ha, always great to see you, my friend! Keeping warm up here? Well, as you can see, I'm here right on time with a new batch of dragons, just like I promised."

Turning to his trapper, Drago Bludvist began, making his way towards Eret.

At this point, the tranquillisers had begun to ware off, and Hookfang awoke with a foul temper. "Watch out! He's waking up! Keep him steady!" one of the mercenaries alerted.

Abruptly raising his head, the Monstrous Nightmare trashed and snapped as he tried to break free of his bonds and save his rider. "Give me some backup here!" another mercenary called out, straining to hold onto the ropes holding Hookfang down.

"Drop the ropes." Drago ordered his men as he stared down the crimson Monstrous Nightmare.

"You dare imprison me, my friends, and my rider!" Hookfang snarled as he saw Drago approaching him. "BURN!"

Within a second, Hookfang unleashed all his built up flame, trying to incinerate the mercenary king to a cinder. Unfortunately, Drago was prepared for this.

Raising his cape, Drago wrapped himself within his dragon cloak, shielding him from the fire as he maintained his pace towards the Stoker dragon.

Soon, the inevitable happened, and Hookfang ran out of flame. "I will kill you!" Hookfang roared out.

Drago however had other things in mind. Raising his bull hook above himself, he began to vigorously swirl it in the air, screaming menacingly as he stepped up to Hookfang's head.

"What the..." Hookfang said in a growing level of fear. Something about this human wasn't right. There was something...commanding about him. And not in the good way. Out of fear, Hookfang lowered his head in shame as he submitted.

Finishing off, Drago stepped on the Stoker's snout and pressed down.

"Hookfang!" Snotlout called out worryingly at the horrifying sight in front of him.

"What are you doing?" Andor yelled, seeing this Drago Bludvist as nothing but a crazed psychopath, ruling through cruelty.

Drago meanwhile gazed darkly into the Nightmare's eyes. "You belong to me now."

Eret meanwhile, still feeling cocky, approached Drago. "And as an added bonus, I also caught you their riders. No extra charge."

The entire gang glared dagger's at Eret as they felt like he had just run several daggers through their backs.

"What?! Are you kidding me?!" Andor yelled, feeling the figurative knife in his back.

"Oh, but you were so perfect!" Ruffnut whined, sagging her shoulders.

"Turns out, there's a whole bunch of them out there. They-" Eret blurted out uncaringly, until Drago gripped Eret's throat and squeezed.

"How many?" Drago growled.

"Drago doesn't have them after all." Andor realised as he whispered to the group. "Play along."

"HOW MANY?!" Drago repeated, right on the verge of crushing Eret's trachea.

"Hundreds! A whole island full!" Andor said, sounding confident.

"I wouldn't worry about it. My men are hunting them down as we speak. They won't know where you're hiding. I promise you that." Eret tried to reassure, barely able to breath from how tight Drago's hold was on his neck.

"Oh, yes they will!" Andor discouraged. "They know we're missing and they have tracking dragons. If you so much as touch us, Hiccup and Draven are gonna kick-"

"Who?" Drago interrupted, wondering who this 'Hiccup' and 'Draven' were, especially considering 'Hiccup' meant runt.

"They're not a problem." Eret tried to reassure. "Really. Trust me."

Stepping away from the gang and towards Drago, Andor began to gloat. "Oh, Hiccup is only the daughter of Stoick the Vast... his heiress to the throne of Berk, and Draven is only a Pyro-Typhon, a half-human half-Wraith, wielding powers you cannot imagine... Both of which are only the two greatest Dragon Masters this world has ever seen!"

"Dragon Master?" Drago hissed, clearly insulted. "I ALONE control the dragons!"

"Nope. Mhmm." Tuffnut snickered. "Sorry!" Fishlegs mocked. It astounded them how the self proclaimed 'Dragon Master' that was Drago actually knew very little about dragons.

Getting right up in Drago's face, Andor threateningly said to the mercenary king "And unless you let us go, right now, Hiccup and Draven will blast through here. Hiccup on her Night Fury, and Draven on his Skrill, and they blow your entire fleet of ships to splinters!"

"Then they'll be crying like babies!" Ruffnut mocked. "Yeah. Like babies. They always cry. Real tiny ones..." Tuffnut added.

"First there was one rider. And now all of Berk." Drago growled as he glared at Eret. "And you lead them to me." he cried out as he tossed the trapper aside like a ragdoll.

"Drago!" Eret said, trying to explain himself and apologise.

Stepping into a podium, Drago Bludvist called out to all his men. "CEASE ALL PREPARATIONS! WE MUST ATTACK THE DRAGONS RIDER'S NEST AT ONCE! WE WILL TAKE DOWN THEIR ALPHA... AND THEN WE WILL TAKE BERK!"

"Drago!" Eret said again, trying to apologise.

"And get rid of him." Drago ordered to the soldiers around him, wanting Eret dead as soon as possible for betraying him.

"Oh, Drago please..." the trapper said again, this time panicking.

Meanwhile above them, a certain blue and yellow Deadly Nadder circled above. "Oh no you don't. That boy has potential." she said as she made her move.

Taking a spear, several of the mercenaries took a throw at Eret. However just at the last second, Stormfly swooped in and shielded Eret, deflecting the spears, daggers and axes with her tough, armoured skin. "Back off." the Nadder hissed.

But her victory was short lived however, as a mercenary with a blowpipe lined up a shot on the underside of Stormfly's neck, and fired a tranquilliser at her.

Making it's mark, Stormfly dropped like a rock, leaving a gob-smacked Eret standing there, not sure about what to do."STORMFLY! NO!" Andor called out worryingly as he watched his dragon pass out.

Eret meanwhile just simply looked down at Stormfly, amazed that she tried to protect him.

...

The sun was peaking over the eastern horizon once again. As arranged, Hiccup and Draven had awoken early, in hopes of finding Drago and talking some sense into him. Just so long as they could avoid a war. This was most important for Draven though, because he knew that if he were in a war with his powers, a lot of blood will be on his hands.

Hiccup and Draven had left their cave, still putting on the last if their gear as they prepared to leave. Toothless and Violet however were still trying to sneak in a few extra minutes of sleep, but were soon awoken to baby Scuttleclaws, playfully looking for attention. While Hiccup put on the last of her armour, Draven stood by the cliff side, taking in the sight if the sanctuary one more time.

"Well, bud, we can't wait around for Drago to attack this place. We've gotta find him first." Hiccup said to her Night Fury as she finished tightening the strap for her left vambrace. Looking to Toothless though, she saw how he was being pestered by the Scuttleclaws, licking him and chewing on his tail. "Get off!" Toothless roared out in frustration, chasing the baby dragons off.

Laughing at the sight, Hiccup just said to both Toothless and Draven "Let's go."

But just as she said that, a large, muscular hand wrapped around her mouth, keeping her quiet. Hiccup murmured in panic, getting Toothless, Violet and Draven's attention. Out of instinct, Draven drew his sword as he turned to face the origin of the possible threat, but only saw that the person holding Hiccup, keeping her quiet, was none other than Stoick.

"Easy now." Stoick gently said, calming the two Striker dragons and Draven.

Wriggling out of her father's grasp, Hiccup stepped back and whispered in displeased surprise "You kidding me? How'd you get in here?"

"Same way we're getting you out." Stoick answered, handing Hiccup her helmet.

"We?!" Hiccup questioned, wondering who else her father brought. She had her answer a moment later at the cave entrance that led back into the tunnels. "All clear!" Gobber cautiously whispered, gesturing for everyone to follow.

"Violet, Toothless. Come." Stoick firmly said to the dragons as Hiccup and Draven followed him into the tunnels.

"Ah, Dad! There's something you need to know!" Hiccup tried to inform as she followed Stoick.

"Yeah, yeah, tell me on the way." Stoick said blandly, clearly annoyed with his daughter's defiance.

"This isn't an on-the-way kind of update, actually..." Hiccup said, trying to figure out a way to break the news to her father.

"I've heard enough, Hiccup." Stoick said, raising his voice slightly.

"More of the earth shattering development variety."

"Yeah, just add it to the pile." Stoick said, not interested in whatever she had to say, and just wanting to get her back home.

The group was nearing the open cavern in the tunnel networks. The same one Hiccup and Draven were dumped in the previous day. "Dad, unlike most surprises I spring on you, this one you'll like. I promise! You just have to handle it delicately." Hiccup said again, still trying to figure out his to tell Stoick.

However, looking ahead, Stoick, Hiccup, and Draven saw that Gobber has stopped walking, and was staring into the cavern with a blank face. Turning back to his best friend, Gobber placed a hand on Stoick's shoulder. "Uh, you might want to take this one. Oh, boy." he said, sitting down to process what he saw.

Thinking it was danger, Stoick drew his sword and pressed on. "Oh, Dad, can you put the sword away... please?" Hiccup pleaded.

Entering the cave, Stoick scanned the room for anyone, and found one person. A woman. A woman he hadn't seen for twenty years. Time itself seemed to almost stop as he gazed up at this person, with eyes dilating. It was the woman he loved. It was Valka. It was his wife.

Valka meanwhile was feeling somewhat uncomfortable. She hadn't really thought about what to do in a possible situation like this. Eventually, she spoke. "I know what you're going to say, Stoick. How could I have done this? Stayed away all these years. And why didn't I come back to you? To our daughter." she said. Slowly, Stoick inched his way closer to her, step by step. Several dragons, including Cloudjumper began to emerge as well, keeping a close eye on their new guests. "Well, what sign did I have that you could change, Stoick? That anyone on Berk could? I pleaded so many times to stop the fighting, to find another answer, but did any of you listen?"

"This is why I never married. This and one other reason." Gobber sarcastically commented to Draven and Hiccup, seeing this situation as an argument waiting to happen.

"I know that I left you to raise Hiccup alone... but I thought she'd be better off without me. And I was wrong, I see that now, but…" Valka continued, growing more and more nervous with Stoick getting closer to her. "oh stop being so stoic, Stoick. Go on... SHOUT, SCREAM, SAY SOMETHING!"

But where Valka was expecting Stoick to be furious, she got the exact opposite. Gently, he pressed his hand to her cheek as he gazed into her forest green eyes. "You're as beautiful as the day I lost you." he lovingly whispered to her.

Taking in the sight of each other's faces once more, Stoick leaned down to give Valka a gentle kiss. After twenty years, the chief and his wife were reunited once more.

...

Several hours earlier

Drago's entire armada was on the move, following the mother ship which was being towed by the underwater leviathan via three gargantuan chains. The fleet followed Drago's ship through the icepacks to the dragon sanctuary.

At the head of the ship, Drago stood, repeatedly hitting his spear on the chains, vibrating them and aggravating the leviathan below.

Towards the rear of the ship, a guard escort had taken Eret and the Berkian gang to the end of the ship to toss them overboard. "Could this day get any worse?" Snotlout rhetorically muttered in frustration.

"Uh, let me see. You'll jump into freezing cold water and then die from drowning." Tuffnut jokingly answered.

Eret was the first of the prisoners to be shoved to walk the figurative plank into frozen waters. "Looks refreshing." the trapper commented as he looked down to the waters. Stepping back, he turned to Andor. "Please, why don't you go first first.

Andor was infuriated. Had his hands not been bound, he'd no doubt choke the life out of the trapper. "You are a steaming heap of dragon-" Andor quietly hissed, until Eret interrupted. "Duck." Eret advised.

Swiping his leg, Andor ducked and dodged Eret's kick, stunning the two guards behind Andor. They lost their grip on their weapons, flinging them into the air.

Being the skilled warrior that he was, Eret was able to catch both spears behind his back, cutting his bonds.

"Warn the others!" the lead guard ordered. One of the four guards bolted, intent on altering the crew, while one guard stayed to keep and eye on Snotlout, Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Ruffnut. The other two pulled out other swords and attacked Eret. "Get 'em, you son of an Eret!" Ruffnut said, feeling turned on by Eret's masculinity.

The trapper however saw the task before him as effortless. With his spears, he both swept up and knocked out the two guards who attacked him with one swift motion.

The guard watching the others decided he'd rather run and find help, seeing as he'd lose in a one on one against Eret. But as he tried to run, Fishlegs made his move and tackled the guard to the ground, crushing and knocking him out with his sheer weight.

The guard lost his grip on his loaded blowpipe, Rossi g it aimlessly in the air only to be caught by the trapper.

Taking swift aim, Eret fired and took out the fourth guard with the tranquiliser. "Okay, I love you again." Ruffnut commented with a wide smile as she, Fishlegs and Andor went over to Eret to get their binds cut.

Snotlout meanwhile felt gut wrenched. It was nearly impossible to get Ruffnut's affection as it was, but with Eret around, it was utterly hopeless. "Ugh, pathetic." Tuffnut said, seeing Snotlout's expression. "You can still jump."

"So?" Eret said to Andor. "Are we going to save your dragons and get out of here or not?"

Despite selling them out earlier, Andor was genuinely pleased by Eret's change of heart, and he was impressed by Eret's skill. Though he was still going to keep and eye on him.

"Check every trap. They're here somewhere." Eret said to the gang, splitting up into teams and fanning out to find their dragons.

Despite the ship's size, it was relatively easy to navigate. As the gang searched the ship, it unnerved them when they started taking in the details of the mother ship m like his it could hold dozens of dragons, or how it's hull was lined with bola launchers, cannons, and razor net launchers.

Eventually, Andor reached on of the traps. Cranking it open via it's control, he checked inside to find a familiar brown and green Gronckle changed up and muzzled. "Meatlug?" he said, gaining the Boulder dragon's attention and getting a relieved smile from her.

Meanwhile on the other side of the ship, Eret was checking another trap with Ruffnut standing next to him, eyeing him up. "Anyone coming?" Eret asked the aroused Berkian as he was cracking the co trol to open the trap.

"I don't know, you just keep doing what you're doing. Keep curing." Ruffnut carelessly answered, not breaking her gaze off of Eret.

Once the trap was open enough, Eret climbed in to find the same Deadly Nadder that saved his life. Stormfly. "Oh, it's you. What do you want." Stormfly asked as she woke up to see the trapper.

Slowly and gently, Eret approached Stormfly with open hands and a nonthreatening nature. "Thank you for saving my life." Erer kindly said as he extended his hand out to the Nadder's snout.

"You're welcome. I trust you." Stormfly answered as she leaned forward and made contact.

"Now let me return the favor."

...

Well, I can assume you guys know what's coming in the next chapter. I'm going to need some extra time to fully plan out what Draven's role will be. Let me know what you guys think of the story so far. See you then.


	7. Chapter 7: Drago's army

So, this is by far the LONGEST chapter I've ever written in Fanfiction since I started writing. Anyway, let's begin.

Warning: this chapter is the reason this story is rated M for violence.

...

It was around the middle of the day as Hiccup, Draven, Valka, Stoick and Gobber with their respective dragons were in Valka's cave in the dragon sanctuary. Hiccup was buzzing like a toddler at Snoggletog and why wouldn't she be. She had both of her parents together.

Speaking of Stoick and Gobber with their own dragons, Hiccup decided to tell her mother about how Berk truly had changed in recent years. "Mom, you'd never even recognize it, where we used to make weapons rebuild saddles, wing slings, we even fix dragon teeth. You wouldn't believe how much everything's changed."

"Our daughter's changed Berk for the better." Stoick said in a proud tone. "I think we did well with this one, Val."

"Thanks dad." Hiccup said with a wide smile.

Valka was just about finished cooking some fish for the group. When she picked up the dish, Stoick noticed and tried to reach out for the dish to carry it himself. "Oh, ha-ha. I got it." He said, trying to be a gentleman.

Startled by the sudden contact, Valka accidentally dropped the plate of fish right in front of Toothless, Violet and Cloudjumper. The two strikers tried to dart forward to snatch up the fish but Cloudjumper got there before them, eating the fish for himself.

Seeing the expressions on the faces of the strikers, the Stormcutter regurgitated enough of the fish for the Skrill and Night Fury to share.

"Sorry, I'm a little out of practice." Valka apologised.

"Well, you know… I didn't marry you for your cooking." Stoick cheerfully replied.

"I hope not, her meatballs could kill more beasts than a battle axe." Gobber said. "I've still got a few noggin around in here. Ha-ha." the smith finished, looking over to Grump and patting his stomach.

"And once you move back in with all your dragons, oh Drago won't stand a chance. Everything will be okay!" Hiccup said, rather enthusiastically. She was beginning to understand now that maybe Drago couldn't be reasoned with. After all, both her parents advised against it.

"Slow down Hiccup, it's a lot to take in." Stoick said to his daughter, putting a hand over her shoulder.

"Oh, gotcha." Hiccup answered with realisation as to what and how she said it. Turning around, she went to sit over by Gobber and Draven.

Valka meanwhile grabbed a clay jar and moved over to some melting ice to fill the jar with water. For a moment, a silence fell over Valka's cave. The silence was soon broken by Stoick, who began to whistle. He began to whistle the song 'For the dancing and the dreaming'. This was Stoick and Valka's 'special' song.

Continuing to whistle, Stoick slowly moved up behind Valka, reaching for the jar in her hands, taking it away and putting it aside.

"Remember our song Val?" he asked softly. Then, he began to sing.

I'll swim and sail on savage seas.

With ne'er a fear of drowning,

and gladly ride the waves of life

if you will marry me.

No scorching sun, nor freezing cold will stop-

"Will stop me on my journey." Gobber blurted out excitedly, getting carries away with a song that he too enjoyed. Realising his action, he quickly sat bag down embarrassed. "Sorry."

Stoick continued.

If you will promise me your heart and love…

Yet Valka remained quiet and unresponsive, as if she was trying not to remember anything of her old life. Not even her song with the man she loved. Dropping his head, Stoick turned, unsure of what to do or say, until Valka too began to sing.

And love me for eternity.

My dearest one my darling dear

your mighty words astound me

but I've no need of mighty deeds

when I feel your arms around me

Joining hands together, Stoick and Valka began to sing in unison and dance.

But I would bring you rings of gold

I'd even sing you poetry

And I would keep you from all harm

If you would stay beside me

I have no use for rings of gold, I care not for your poetry. I only want your hand to hold

I only want you near me

As the two's dancing and singing began to pick up, Gobber joined in. Stepping up with a cheer, Gobber began to sing and dance as well. Or as good as he could with only one leg.

Hiccup and Draven were still on the bench however, until Draven had an idea. 'Oh why not?' the hybrid thought to himself. Getting up as well, he offered his hand to his partner.

Rolling her eyes as well as smiling radiantly, Hiccup took Draven's hand as the two joined in on the dance.

To love to kiss to sweetly hold.

For the dancing and the dreaming,

through all life's sorrows and delights

I'll keep your love inside me.

I'll swim and sail on savage seas

with ne'er a fear of drowning

and gladly ride the waves of life if you will marry me.

The song and dancing came to it's end. Except for Gobber who kept on singing with his terrible high notes. "Me-eee-e. I'm still goin'." he carried on, earning whining and groaning sounds from all five dragons in the cave. "Please, make him stop!" Toothless, Violet, Skullcrusher, Grump and Cloudjumper all whined together.

Hearing their pleading as well as how the smith was making the situation awkward, Draven nudged Gobber in the gut with his elbow. "I'm done."

Stoick meanwhile was staring deeply in Valka's eyes. "I thought I'd have to die before we done that dance again." he said with a chuckle.

"No need for drastic measures." Valka replied, laughing off the rest of whatever energy she got from the dance.

"For you my dear, anything." Stoick said.

Taking Valka's hand, Stoick got onto one knee. "Will you come home Val? Will you be my wife once again?"

Seeing Hiccup and Draven next to them, Stoick pulled the two towards them. "We can a be a family, what do you say?"

The answer was easy for Valka. Between seeing that her daughter was not only a dragon rider like her, but was happy with the man she was with and the fact that Berk had indeed changed, becoming dragon riders as well, there was only one thing to say. "Yes."

"Great! I'll do the cooking." Gobber joked as he shoved himself into the group.

"Thank Odin you didn't listen to me Hiccup, we would've never found each other." Stoick said to his daughter as everyone went about their business.

However, while all that was happening, Violet and Toothless growled as they noticed something. "We've got trouble!" Toothless alerted. Looking to where the Night Fury was looking, everyone saw how the entire hive was in an exodus. Danger was near.

To add to the severity, Draven's arm began to glow intensely as he dropped to the ground, clutching his hand. It was his Wraith sense's early warning alert. "Draven! What's happening?" Hiccup asked worryingly.

Draven could sense something powerful getting close. Something familiar. A power much like his own. "What is it? A Wraith?" Gobber asked.

"No. Not a Wraith." Draven answered. "Whatever it is I'm sensing, it's like I'm sensing myself."

After a few seconds, Draven's eyes widened at realisation. "It's another Pyro-Typhon like me but...there's something, wrong with him."

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked.

"Wait." Draven said. "There's something else." Using his Wraith sense, Draven soon identified that a nearby mentally crazed hybrid was the least of their concerns. "DRAGO!"

Not a moment after he said that, the mountain, caves and ice formations quaked as something struck them. "And cannon fire." Draven added.

Rushing towards the tunnels and the nearest exit, the group made their way to the outside of the sanctuary onto an icy platform overlooking the beach.

The sight they beheld sent chills down all their spines. Thousands upon thousands of mercenary soldiers, well trained and well armed, roaring out battle cries as they repeatedly fired on the sanctuary again and again with nearly two dozen cannons. Behind the cannons, rows upon rows of bola launchers, razor net slingers, claw traps and snap traps were set up, ready to fire at a moment's notice. Behind all of those, was nearly a hundred warships with armoured dragons crawling all over them.

This was the army of Drago Bludvist.

Valka meanwhile was fuming as she was silently cursing to herself. Everything she had worked for over the past twenty years was at huge risk of coming undone. Seeing Drago's army, she knew that their chances were grim.

"Val, Val. It's alright, alright." Stoick tried to comfort as he came out in full armour. "We're a team now, now what do you want to do?"

"We have to save the dragons." Valka pleaded.

"Aye. You got it. Come on, Hiccup." Stoick acknowledged, as he, Gobber, Hiccup, Draven and Valka went back into the cave to grab their gear and dragons.

While they headed outside, the perimeter guard dragons around the nest had fled their hovels to attack the intruders, in order to buy their comrades some time.

Descending down on the mercenary horde, the pack of Snafflefangs and Raincutters fired relentlessly on the soldiers, intent on lining up on the cannons to tale them out. Unfortunately, the ground-to-air attacks were too heavy for the few guard dragons. They were forced to fly low to get out of the line of sight of the weapons, but that only set them up to be trapped inside the snap traps.

One Snafflefang was able to dodge the snap traps, but he was unable to a void the bola launchers. Getting entangled, the Dravon's came crashing down, right beside Drago.

"Whatever comes, keep hitting the mountain. We need to draw the alpha out." Drago ordered his lieutenants as the entire hive began to swarm out into the open.

Drago's forces deployed their own dragons as well. As Stoick had said, these dragons were armoured and highly aggressive. Attacking Valka's dragons, Drago's dragons grabbed them by their feet or wings and intentionally crashed, allowing the mercenaries to trap them.

"Ready the traps!" Bludvist yelled. With that order, his men began opening up the claw traps, revealing several trapped and injured dragons inside. Feeling the need to help their comrades, some dragons rushed down to help the entrapped dragons, who as much trued to warn the other dragons to stay back, couldn't because of their muzzles.

The moment a dragon would land in the trap to help a comrade, the trap would snap closed, trapping both dragons and injuring the rescuer.

All twelve of the traps were set up like this, but the dragons inside four of the traps had other ideas. From one trap, a thick, green gas began to spew out, enshrouding the surrounding mercenaries. All it took was a spark.

With Belch scraping his teeth together, he sparked his brother's napalm, detonating it and blasting off all the surrounding mercenaries.

"SURPRISE!" Tuffnut gloated as he, his sister, the other Berkians and their dragons took to the sky.

"WHAT?!" Drago screamed out. 'Displeased' would be an understatement for what he felt.

Getting some distance from the army's long range weapons, the gang regrouped so they could plan. Andor and Fishlegs were riding Meatlug together while Eret was riding Stormfly.

"You really are full of surprises!" Andor said to Eret, genuinely surprised and pleased to see how Eret was trying to help. Standing on Meatlug, Andor jumped over to Stormfly to help e former trapper. "Let's go!"

Angling downwards, the riders began their assault. "Dragon Riders coming through!" Tuffnut said as he and Ruffnut guided their Zippleback over the trapped dragons, spraying napalm all over the area.

As they finished their run, Stormfly swopped in and ignited the gas with her magnesium flame, burning the dragon shackles and setting the reptiles free. Escaping the traps, the grounded dragons joined their comrades in the battle.

The army began to ready their weapons again to bring down the escaping dragons, but the riders had other plans. "Fire!" Fishlegs said as he and Meatlug moved in and blasted one of the main razor net launchers with a lava ball.

To prevent the soldiers from trying to replenish their weapons, supplies or ammunition, Snotlout swooped in with Hookfang and disintegrated one if the primary loading cranes taking weapons off the ships.

Pulling up, Snotlout and Hookfang couldn't help but cackle as they watched the crane and the surrounding mercenary equipment melt into nothingness.

"Cut them down!" Drago screamed out as his rage soared.

Readying their backup razor net and bola launchers, the soldiers took aim at the riders and fired. Hookfang, Meatlug and Stormfly were able to get out of the way easy enough but it was much harder for Barf and Belch seeing as how they were the closest to the launchers.

Turning around, the Zippleback beat his wings as heard as he could to reach the mountain and get his riders to safety, dodging the incoming projectiles as best he could, but the relentless onslaught of the mercenaries was too much for him to handle.

On bola net missed Barf but it was still close enough to graze the dragon and knock Ruffnut from her seat. Tuffnut, Barf and Belch, Andor and Eret watched helplessly as Ruffnut plummeted towards the ground.

"Eret, son of Eret!" Ruffnut called out, praying for the man of her dreams to save her, but it was no use. He was too far off. With the ground coming closer, Ruffnut thought that this was the end, but it wasn't. She was indeed saved by none over than Snotlout grabbing her right arm and Fishlegs grabbing her left.

Looking up, Ruffnut actually saw the two male riders in a new light, even if Fishlegs' extra weight was jiggling from the vibrations of his dragon.

Meanwhile, back on the other side of the field, the mercenaries has zeroed their weapons in on Stormfly and her occupants. Firing ever razor net, bola net can cannon they had, the mercenaries were intent on bringing at least one if the riders down.

Andor however had been studying military maneuvers recently, and wasn't going to give up that easily. "Up, girl. Lean left Eret." Andor said to his dragon and her current rider, steering her away from the incoming fire and to safety. "That's it."

One if the cannon operators however was somewhat crafty. If he couldn't hit the Nadder with a tiny cannonball, then he'd use something MUCH bigger. Aiming his cannon at the mountain, the operator fired, hitting a massive shard of ice hanging off the mountain and bringing it down on the blue Nadder. "Look out!" Andor yelled, but it was no use. There was no possible way for Stormfly to escape. That was until the A-team arrived.

With one powerful plasma blast, the giant shard of ice was turned to dust. As it and the smoke cleared, Andor and Eret saw Hiccup, Draven, Stoick and Gobber emerging from the mountain in formation.

Making their moves, Toothless and Violet broke formation as they headed towards the rear ranks. Dodging razor nets and bolas left and right, the two dragons and their riders effortlessly maneuvered through the hail of fire.

Lining up, they attacked. Toothless fired on one of the primary bola launchers, shattering it to splinters. Violet meanwhile lined up on the soldiers themselves, blasting and entire hundred meters of them with her lightning. To top it off, as Violet completed her strafing run, Draven was still able to turn on the saddle and fire off a plasma bolt behind him, taking out an additional squad of soldiers.

"Take em' down!" the captain of an archer squad ordered, lining his and his men's bows up on the passing Strikers. Gobber however had other ideas. "Heads up!"

Using his massive stone-like tail as a bludgeon, Grump utterly flattened the archer squad simply by passing over them, knocking them all out with very little effort.

The two Striker dragons successfully completed their attacks as they pulled up and gained some altitude, passing Drago on the way. "Dragon Masters..." Drago darkly hissed as he watched his enemies stream past him.

Gesturing with his hand, Drago ordered his Flagship to deploy every cannon, razor net and bola launcher it had to try bring down the Strikers. It was at this point that Draven and Hiccup not only noticed the Flagship aiming it's weapons at them, but the sky began to darken as well as thick, black clouds began to manifest with purple and blue lightning arcing between them. "Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise." Draven said with a grin, knowing full well what was coming.

The entire island, man and dragon alike, good and bad beheld as four glowing silhouettes began to manifest within the clouds, with terrifying screeches coming from them. Not a moment later, the four Wraiths Draven met the previous day emerged, firing a relentless barrage of plasma bolts and lightning down on Drago's flagship, taking out it's armament.

With the flagship on fire, the Wraiths flew over to join Hiccup and Draven. "Ha! Never thought I'd be happy to see Wraiths." Draven joked to the lead Wraith.

"Oh, we'd feel them same if we were in your position." the father Wraith answered with a laugh. "We came to help."

Looking down the the battlefield searching for it's leader, Draven soon found Drago. "Alright Gale, I need you and your family to stay with Toothless and Violet. Run escort for them, but don't get carless. Be carful, especially with your daughter."

Hiccup heard what Draven was saying to the father Wraith. "Going somewhere?" she asked, wondering what was going on inside his head.

"The head of the snake." Draven answered, glaring darkly down at the area Drago was in. Not a moment later, the hybrid rolled off of his saddle and plummeted head first towards the ground. Changing into his Pyro-Typhon form, Draven charged up a plasma bolt in his hand and slammed it into the ground in impact, decimating yet another squad of soldiers as they were sent flying in every direction. Pulling out his sword as well as his bladed wings, Draven got to work as he began to slash, cleave and blast his way towards Drago's position.

Back with the Strikers and their Fear-class escorts meanwhile, they had pulled further away from Drago's men as they gained some altitude, joining up with the rest of the gang passing over the battlefield.

"Welcome aboard, Dragon Rider." Hiccup welcomingly said to Eret, surprised that he was actually there helping them. "Thanks! I think!" the former trapper answered nervously, still trying to Gert the hang of flying.

"Where have you been?" Andor asked the two riders but primarily aimed at Hiccup.

"Oh, you know. Catching up with mom." Hiccup answered with a wide vein as she looked back up to the mountain.

Did Andor hear that right? Hiccup's mother? He looked to where Hiccup was looking and saw a person standing atop a Stormcutter dragon, waving their staff and summoning a gargantuan white tidal dragon behind them. As the Bewilderbeast's head broke through the ice, he let out a deafening roar as he turned to the soldiers and prepared for battle.

"That's your mother?!" Andor said, baffled beyond description.

"Well, now you know where I get my dramatic flair!" Hiccup finished with a smile as she put her helmet on as Toothless went into another strafing run with Violet and the Wraiths following.

Drago meanwhile was more interested in the newcomer to the battlefield. "The alpha! Now, we have a fight."

The Alpha was finally able to break free of the icy walls of the sanctuary. Taking aim, he blasted his ice and took out the mercenary army's entire right flank.

Valka meanwhile had gathered several Zipplebacks together. Spinning her staff and signaling them, they began their attack on the army's central ranks. Swooping down the Zippleback heads grabbed ahold of their own tails as all the right heads let out huge amounts of napalm. As they reached the ground, the left heads sparked the gas, making each and every one of the Zipplebacks rolling balls of fire, mowing right through the central ranks of Drago's forces. The attack was successful, except for one Zippleback that rolled right into a snap trap.

"Come on, Toothless!" Hiccup said as she turned her Night Fury to go save the two headed dragon. "Show them what you got, bud!"

Going into a steep dive, Toothless, Violet, and their Wraith escort went for another strafing run. Taking aim, Toothless fired and destroyed the snap trap with perfect pinpoint precision, all while Violet and the Wraiths chased away any mercenaries surrounding the Zippleback.

With the trap shattered, the Zippleback was able to escape and join his comrades. "Whoo-hoo-hoo! ATTABOY!" Hiccup cheered and Toothless barrel rolled out of the successful attack.

Meanwhile, back in the army's left flank, Draven was covering ground fast as he mercilessly carved a bloody path towards Drago Bludvist. While fighting through the mercenaries, he found himself caught right between two charging squads. His did he respond? Using the spike on the end of his one wing, he impaled the one mercenary he was dealing with. Flooding the mercenary's body with his nerve gas via his wing, Draven tossed his makeshift gas grenade into the one squad of mercs while firing a plasma bolt into the other, trying to conserve his remaining fourteen shots of twenty.

At this point, few to no soldiers had dared to challenge the Pyro-Typhon. All of Drago's remaining men on the left flack had joined their forces in the central and right flanks, leaving Drago alone with one soldier and a small cage next to him.

Before Draven turned to face Bludvist, he still had one more mercenary to deal with. He was one of the few survivors of the squad hit by Draven's plasma bolt. He was badly wounded and trying to crawl to safety. Just the kind of prey that Wraiths and Typhons stalk when they want to send a message.

Extending his left wing, Draven impaled the wounded soldier through his shoulder, pulling him closer and grabbing his collar. Rearing his head back, Draven's glow intensified as he let out a bloodcurdling roar as a black mist secreted from his body and went into his prey.

The merc was utterly helpless. He screamed in horror as Draven's hallucinogenic gas drove him mad showing him his fears, turning his eyes white as snow and causing his skin to fade grey. This was the true power of Wraiths and Pyro-Typhons. The true power of fear.

Dropping the shriveling carcass, Draven growled deeply as he slowly turned to face the head of the snake. "DRAGO!" Draven called out menacingly. "Call off your forces or you're next!" he said, pointing to the dying soldiers he tossed aside.

Drago however was barely phased, which unsettled the hybrid. "Ha! You know 'Draven', if there's one thing I've learned over the years," Drago said, almost mockingly. "it's that you fight fire with fire. You fight dragons with dragons." Bludvist continued, gesturing to his own dragons in his army. Then, he gestured to the small cage behind him which his soldier was busy opening. "And you fight hybrids, with hybrids." Bludvist finished with a maniacal grin.

The cage soon opened, whereby a thick black smoke oozed from it. Seconds later, a Pyro-Typhon emerged from the cage and was facing Draven in battle posture. Draven meanwhile was actually horrified to simply look at this new hybrid. Where Draven's transformed state was merely him with luminous blue skin, black armoured scales, black face, red eyes, two wings, two silver horns and a silver carapace, this new hybrid was in every sense of the word, a monster.

He had no horns or carapace, or even a face for that matter. His only facial feature was his elongated jaw with razor shark-like teeth. His wings were larger than Draven's but were also partially shredded. He also didn't have hands, but two giant bone hooks on the ends of his arms. Lastly, he didn't even have feet, but stood on two strong tendrils coming out of his legs.

Draven sheathed his sword. If at all possible, he not only wanted to avoid conflict with one of his own kind, but could sense that this new hybrid wasn't mentally stable. Something was wrong with him. "Easy." Draven softly said, raising his palms in a nonthreatening manner. "Let me guess. Drago here captured you sometime after you changed and he's kept you locked up ever since. Whenever he captures Wraiths, he kills them and forces you to take their powers, negatively mutating you and making your own powers unstable." Draven said, trying to make peace with the hybrid, and from what he could see, the new hybrid seemed to be having some kind of inner conflict judging by his eyes. "I'm also guessing he's got some kind of leverage on you. Well I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way. As a hybrid, you have more power than you can imagine. You don't have to work for him."

Slowly, Drago's hybrid began to lower his head. "Stand down, and you have my word that no harm will come to you." Draven sympathetically finished.

Drago was beginning to grow impatient. He just wanted Draven dead. Gripping his staff, he jabbed his own hybrid in his back. "Know your place underling! Or do you think you can defy me?" Drago hissed, threateningly so.

Slowly looking back up to Draven, Drago's hybrid finally spoke. "You're dead."

Out of nowhere, Drago's hybrid fired a plasma bolt from his mouth that landed squarely on Draven's carapace, shroud in the Berkian in a cloud of smoke and dust from the explosion. However as the dust had settled, Draven was still standing there, barely even phased, with his head slightly to the left. Turning his head forward, Draven let out a deep growl as he extended his wings and intensified his glow. There was only one way this could go. "Very well, you do not have my word."

In a split second, Drago's hybrid lunged at Draven, but the Berkian was ready. With his heightened reflexes, Draven sidestepped and ducked, dodging his enemy's attack. Retaliating, Draven grabbed the other hybrid's throat as he was passing over, slamming his head into the ground a second later.

Beating his wings, Draven gained some altitude, still holding onto Drago's hybrid. As hard as he could, Draven tossed his enemy towards the battle like a ragdoll, slamming him yet again into the ground. To keep up his attack, Draven raised his hands to the storm clouds the Wraiths had generated, pulling down several lightning bolts and charging himself.

Taking aim, Draven fired a single charged lightning strike down to his adversary, but Drago's hybrid was able to recover from his crash quicker than Draven had anticipated. Opening his own wings, he was able to take to the sky before the lightning could hit him.

It was now a game of cat and mouse. Draven and Drago's hybrid began to relentlessly fire plasma bolts at each other as they chased each other around the battle and Drago's fleet, destroying several ships in the process. Drago's hybrid was way stronger than Draven, but he was highly uncoordinated and very sloppy in his attacks, both melee and ranged. Draven was able to capitalise on this with his superior speed, tactics and fighting skills, making this an even fight.

To try gain any kind of advantage both Pyro-Typhons ascended higher into the sky, flying into the Wraith stroke to get stronger and beat their opponent.

Down in the battle meanwhile, it was clear that between the dragon riders, and their Alpha, they were clearly winning. Drago's army was slowly being pushed back to the waters but had nowhere to retreat seeing as half their fleet was on fire. Even their air force couldn't hold as Stoick and Valka were chasing them off.

Unfortunately, Drago's army wasn't going to give up that easily. Some of the artillery crews were still active such as the bola launchers, and they had lined Cloudjumper up squarely in their sights. With one precision shot, Cloudjumper was hit with both his left wings getting entangled along with his legs. "Ugh, hold on Valka."

Bracing themselves, Valka and Cloudjumper came crashing down over by where the army's left flank was. Where Drago was.

Recovering from her crash, the first thing Valka saw was her arch nemesis. "I've waited a long time for this." Drago said maniacally as he gripped his staff. Lunging forward, Valka and Drago engaged in combat.

"You cannot take our dragons! They are controlled by the alpha!" Valka said, trying to deter Drago as she tried to push him off balance.

Drago however was a skilled warrior himself and wouldn't go down that easily. Speaking of Alpha, he thought it was about time he revealed his secret weapon. The reason he still appeared so calm despite his soldiers dying. "Then it's a good thing I brought a challenger."

Stepping back from Valka, Drago began to swirl his staff in the air whilst repeatedly screaming. This was the signal.

Looking to the ocean, Valka, the army, the dragons, the riders, even the hybrids watched as the seas trembled. From under the flagship, something stirred as the waters foamed and riled. Emerging from the ocean, the riders felt their hearts sink like rocks as they saw that Drago had his own Bewilderbeast. This one was slightly bigger than Valka's one and was more dark grey to black than white. He was also covered in scars, chains and other crude restraints, showing that not only had it been under Drago's rule for quite some time, but followed his every command. This was clearly a Dark Alpha. 'So that's how he's doing it. He raised a Bewilderbeast maliciously to take over other dragons.' Draven wondered as he continued to battle the other Pyro-Typhon in the storms.

"Another one?" Hiccup said to herself, feeling annoyed and disheartened.

Fishlegs meanwhile was flying information with Hiccup and Andor with the Wraiths. "That is a class ten! Class ten!" he screamed out in panic. Oh his he wished that this leviathan was a class five. Heck, Red Death's would be child's play compared to this.

"Come on! Take down the alpha!" Drago ordered his prized pet.

The Dark Alpha quickly noticed his rival. "There can only be one Alpha in this world you worm! Fall before me!" he raided out as he marched to the white Alpha.

"No!" Valka cried out, batting Drago on his back. Unfortunately, her attack wasn't too effective as Drago turned, swinging his bull hook and tripping Valka.

Marching over to her on the ground, Drago stepped on her chest as he ripped her mask off with his staff. 'Time to die.' Drago thought to himself, intent on running his spear through Valka.

Just before he could do that though, a large fist made contact with his jaw, shoving him off. Recording from the punch, he saw that Valka was rescued by none other than Stoick the Vast. An old rival he thought dead. Detaching his cloak, Drago prepared for what would be a much harder fight.

"Thank you." Valka said as Stoick helped her up.

"For you my dear, anything." the chief replied as he readied his axe, circling Drago.

That Alpha's had reached one another as they began to battle, repeatedly slamming their tusks together as show of dominance. "Val, you think you can stop them?" Stoick asked his wife, worried the fight between the Alpha's would escalate.

"I'll do my best. Come on Cloudjumper." Valka replied as she freed her dragon and took to the air.

Making a beeline for the Alphas, she placed herself squarely between their heads. Seeing her, her Bewilderbeast backed off as she tried to reason with the Dark Alpha. It was no use as the Dark Alpha still lunged forward to attack his target. "It's no use Cloudjumper, he's fighting for keeps." The white Alpha said to his friend.

Back on the far said of the beach meanwhile, Drago Bludvist and Stoick the Vast were circling each other. "You? I watched you burn." Drago shouted in rage as he attacked.

"It takes more than a little fire to kill me." Stoick spat back as he parried Drago's attacks and began to press his own assault.

The two continued on like this for several seconds, but Drago's mind was still fixed on victory and was still not going to go down without a fight. Parrying, blocking and dodging each other's attacks, Drago was eventually able to get in close and shove Stoick back, tripping him to the ground. This was Drago's opportunity.

Gobber however nearby and thought he'd lend a hand. Literally. Doing a flyby past Stoick, Gobber detached his mace-hand attachment and tossed it to his friend. "Stoick!" Gobber called out as he tossed his bludgeon. Grabbing it, Stoick whacked Drago off his attack, and the two resumed their duel.

Meanwhile, high in the skies, Draven and his own rival were still battling it out. With the dense cloud cover and electrical storms, it was increasingly difficult to make out anything that happened up there. The only clues and hints that the riders or soldiers got were occasional banshee-like screams and repeated flashes of plasma explosions.

Eventually after several tense moments, the flashes in the sky began to increase. The lightning intensified as it all converged in a single point at the center of the storm. Soon, there was an intensely bright glow in the storm as the lightning was sucked in. Even the sound in the air itself seemed to disappear as well. Then it happened.

There was a gargantuan explosion in the storm that sounded like the crack of a dozen lightning bolts. The explosion was so large that the storms themselves seemed to split and dissipate. Moments later a body emerged from the cloud back, falling lifelessly to the earth, and it was not Draven.

Said hybrid emerged from the clouds seconds later, bullet diving towards the falling hybrid whilst charging his second last plasma shot in his hand. At the final moment, Draven punched his rival as hard as he could while also firing his shot at point black range.

Drago's hybrid plummeted towards the ground like a falling star, smashing into the base of the side of the mountain. "Useless lightweight." Draven sarcastically muttered to himself as he landed and pulled out his sword. With his enemy stunned and badly injured, he now had the chance to finish him off.

As Draven got closer, Drago's hybrid began to slowly stagger up, still intent on fighting despite being barely able to even stand.

Rolling his eyes at how persistent this hybrid was, Draven lowered his defence as he effortlessly fired his final shot into the mountain itself, collapsing one of the giant ice shards right on top of Drago's hybrid.

Yet still, even after having a fifty tonne shard of ice dropped on his head, Drago's hybrid still tried to get up. Clawing through the ice and staggering up, he faced Draven yet again. The Berkian hybrid was starting to lose his patients.

Lunging forwards at blinding speed, Draven rammed both his wings into his rival's shoulders, pinning him to the rock wall behind him. An attack like this would cause most to scream out in agony, yet Drago's hybrid remained silent. It was then that Draven sensed a change. If Drago's hybrid had eyes, he'd be looking Draven right in his own eyes. Then he spoke. "Please, brother... Please... Kill me... Please... Get him... Out of my head." he begged in pain. Being merciful, Draven did the deed, running his sword through the other hybrid's heart.

Pulling out, Drago's hybrid dropped to the ground, stone dead. Turning around, Draven swiped his sword to the side to clean the blood off of it. He then slowly began to march towards the mercenary soldiers, who in turn were backing away, not wanting to fight a half human half Wraith.

However, as Draven had stepped roughly ten meters away from the falled hybrid, small sparks if lightning and gas began to swirl around the corpse. "Ugh, I was afraid this would happen." Draven unenthusiastic muttered to himself. As he turned his head over his shoulder, it happened, but not in the way Draven was expecting.

Drago's hybrid had released his powers and essence into the air but it wasn't dispersing everywhere like a dead Wraith would. Made some sense. This was after all the first time Draven or anyone saw what would happen if a hybrid dies.

No, instead of dispersing in all directions as a gas, the fallen hybrid's body began arcing several purple arcs of lightning and blue fire, as if automatically leaving the fallen hybrid and searching a new host.

After several painful moments, Draven dropped to the ground and things began to go south for him. He reverted back to human state and his powers began almost completely unresponsive. His right arm barely emanated it's bright blue glow.

Seeing this, the mercenaries began to feel much better about their chances, and began to form up to attack Draven.

Draven meanwhile had staggered back up, still clutching his blade. "I don't need my Typhon form to fight you maggots." Draven grunted as he got into fighting stance.

Suddenly, something unexpected happened. When Draven tried to lunge, his entire body physically turned into a cloud of paralysing smoke, as if he never even existed. Darting forward, it only took Draven seconds to cut down over a dozen mercenaries, causing the rest to step back.

Reentering the physical plain as Draven's body rematerialized from a cloud of smoke, Draven looked to his right arm as well as the trail of death behind him in awe, confusion, shock and surprise. "Well this is new. Okay, let's use this." Draven said with a grin as he turned into smokr and continued to fight the mercenaries.

Battles were raging all across the island. From Valka's dragons fighting Drago's dragons, to Draven and the dragons riders fighting Drago's soldiers. From Stoick fighting Drago, to the Bewilderbeasts still fighting for dominance.

Speaking of Bewilderbeasts, it was now becoming clear who the victor would be. As determined as the White Alpha was to protect his people, he was faltering to the Dark Alpha's experience at combat. Trying to gain any kind of advantage, the White Aloha reared back on his hind legs, coming down with all his might and headbutting the Dark Alpha, who was momentarily stunned.

Trying to capitalise, the White Alpha lunged forward to try and beat his adversary, but the Dark Alpha recovered faster than the White Alpha could anticipate. Catching the White Alpha by his tusks using his own, the Dark Alpha pushed the White Alpha back as he raised his head up, espousing his neck.

Taking his opportunity, the Dark Alpha caught the White's neck in his tusks, slowly strangling him as he pushed him back. Soon, it was all over. The White Alpha couldn't hold his own as he gave up and collapsed backwards. "Time to die!" the Dark Alpha darkly hissed. Lunging forward, he rammed his giants tusks right through the heart and lungs of the White Alpha.

Time itself almost seemed to stop as everyone looked over to the victor of the battle between the Bewilderbeasts. "No!" Valka said in horror with eyes wide and mouth agape. The Alpha was a good friend of hers, and now he was dead.

"My turn." the Dark Alpha said to himself. Raising his head, he let out a deafening roar as his antenna vibrated. "You follow me now dragons! Tremble before your lord!" All around the Dark Alpha, all dragons began to swarm around him as they pledged their allegiance, some landing and bowing at his feet. Draven felt a slight sting in his head but was able to push it aside.

Back on the far side of the beach, Drago couldn't smile wide enough. "We've won. Now, finish her!" Drago ordered his pet.

Unable to do much, all Stoick could do was watch on in horror as the Dark Alpha turned to his wife. Valka and Cloudjumper saw this and tried to their hardest to escape, but is was of little use. Firing his ice blast, the Dark Alpha's ice raced towards the fleeing Stormcutter. Pulling up as hard as he could, Cloudjumper was able to avoid most of the blast, but his tail got caught, getting entrapped in ice. With his tail weighted, his flying became incredibly sloppy as he began losing balance and slowing down. It was only a matter of time now.

"Hold on!" Stoick cried out to his wife as he rushed over to his Rumblehorn and mounted him. "Skullcrusher, go!"

The green dragon took of the ground like a rocket as he blazed towards Cloudjumper. "Come on, Gobber." Stoick yelled as he flew past his friend who was grounded. "Right behind you, Stoick!"

Cloudjumper meanwhile was still trying to get through the dragon swarm that was circling the Dark Alpha. The swarm however was too dense, and Valka was hit. Clinging on as best she could, Valka strugglesd to hold onto Cloudjumper. Soon the inevitable happened, and she fell.

Taking his opportunity, Stoick leapt from Skullcrusher's saddle and caught Valka in mid air. Using his axe, Stoick jammed his blade hard into the ice of the side of the mountain as he and Valka slid down, coming to a stop beating some rocks to hide from the Bewilderbeast. Said Alpha knew Valka had survived and was hunting her.

"Oh no you don't!" Draven said aloud to himself. Despite being unable to transform, Draven's shot limit was reset and he could still shoot. With no mercenaries attacking him, he began to relentlessly fire plasma shots at the Alpha to get his attention and allow for Stoick and Valka to find better cover.

"You insulant pest! You dare attack me!?" the Alpha roared out as he turned to see who was attacking him. He soon found that his attacker was the Pyro-Typhon hybrid, who had killed his own hybrid minion and claimed his powers. "You're brave for attacking me, worm, I'll give you that. But it matters not. You obey me now." the Bewilderbeast growled.

With the vibration of his antenna, Draven's mind began to burn. Dropping to the ground, Draven clutched his head as he screamed in agony. "You obey me now!" the Alpha said again, though something was wrong. Sure, independent dragons put up a fight when he tried to subdue them, by this hybrid was in a league of his own. It was as though he could enter the hybrid's mind, but couldn't subdue it for himself.

Draven's screaming meanwhile had begun to change to a series of grunts and groans as his right arm fell to his side while still clutching his head with his left. For several tense seconds, the entire battlefield watched eagerly as Draven and the Alpha continued to fight in a battle of wills. Then it happened.

Slowly, Draven began to raised his head, revealing a fire burning within his eyes as the white if his eyes turned black, like they did when he transformed. Then he spoke. "Get. Out. Of. My. HEAD!" Draven screamed out in fury. Raising his right arm, Draven tried to fire again, but this time, something happened. For a split second, his arm's glow had returned, but it wasn't blue. No. For that split second when he fired his plasma shot, his arm's glow was gold.

When his plasma shot made contact, it detonated with an immense force with several arcs of electricity emanating from the epicenter. The blast was strong enough the it actually cased the Dark Alpha's head to momentarily be pushed to the side.

Feeling his strength absolutely sapped, Draven's arm dropped back to his side as it's colour turned back to a dull grey. Slouching, Draven simply panted heavily, unable to even stand.

The Alpha meanwhile was beyond infuriated. First this low life mutant abomination attacks him, then resists his alpha call, then attacks him again. He had no words. There was only one thing to do.

Draven watched as the Dark Alpha raised his enormous tusks and turned his head to the side. "Ugh, this is gonna hurt." Draven groaned as he braced himself.

Swiping his tusks along the ground, the Alpha's attack made contact with Draven, sending him skimming along the entire beach in a world of pain, and slamming into the mound of ice and stone that was behind Drago. With whatever strength he had left, Draven painfully groaned "Is that all you got, old man?" before peeling off the ice and collapsing to the ground unconscious.

Slowly, Drago began to confidently walk over to the unconscious hybrid, when he heard a female voice shout out "STOP!"

Drago watched as the Night fury landed, and a young and small girl dismount him. He could tell she had to be about twenty but saw her as pathetic, seeing as how she was a bit of a runt. Her name was 'hiccup' after all. This is the great dragon master?" Drago said as he laughed. "The daughter of Stoick the vast, what shame he must feel."

Even though Hiccup had been warned that Drago couldn't be reasoned with, and had even considered it herself, she still had to at least try. "All of this loss and for what? To become unstoppable? To rule the world?" she asked, only earning a rather confident look from Drago from his victory over the White Alpha. "Dragons, they are kind, amazing creatures that can bring people together." she tried to explain, wish Drago would stop this fighting.

Drago on the other hand had a different mindset. "Or tear them apart." he replied with a growl as he revealed that his entire left arm was prosthetic when he unhooked it.

"You see, I know what it is to live in fear." Drago said as he reattached his arm and began to circle Hiccup. "To see my village burnt, my family taken. But even as a boy left with nothing I vowed to rise above the fear of dragons, and liberate the people of this world."

"Then why a dragon army?" Hiccup asked confusedly, trying to piece together what Drago was thinking.

"Well, you need dragons to conquer other dragons." Drago answered with a wide smile, gesturing to his Bewilderbeast.

"Or maybe you need dragons to conquer people." Hiccup snapped back as she finally had Drago figures out. "To control those who follow you and get rid of those who don't."

"Clever girl." Drago replied, realising Hiccup would probably be more trouble than he thought, seeing as his she saw through his 'ideals of liberation'.

"The world wants peace, and we have the answer back on Berk." Hiccup tried to explain, while also trying to keep Toothless from becoming aggressive. The Night Fury could tell that Drago was planning something. Something bad. "Just let me show you-" Hiccup tried to say.

"No!" Drago aggressively interrupted. "Let ME show YOU!"

With his staff, Drago stepped back from Hiccup as he began to swirl I in the air and scream out. Just like earlier, he was summoning his pet.

"What…" Stoick thought as he watched the Alpha stop searching for them, until he began to hear screaming on the other end of the beach. Looking there, all became abundantly clear. "Hiccup!"

Breaking cover, Stoick began to race down the mountain towards the far side of the beach and save his daughter. "Come on, Gobber!" Stoick said as he and Valka raced past the smith.

"Okay, change of plan!" Gobber muttered tiredly as he followed down the mountain.

The Bewilderbeast quickly reached his master where he saw him, a young human girl, a Night Fury and didn't responds to his earlier call, and the hybrid he incapacitated. Speaking of hybrid, Draven began to wake up now, but could still barely move as his body ached.

"No dragon can resist the alpha's command." Drago said as he raised his bull hook, gaining his pet's attention. "So, he who controls the alpha controls them all." he finished, pointing his staff to Toothless.

Accepting the order, the Alpha began to vibrate his antenna on a frequency Toothless could hear. The Night Fury almost immediately began to whine and groan as his ears flopped up and down while he shut his eyes. "No! Please, don't..." Toothles tried to beg, the the Alpha wouldn't hear it.

"Toothless? T-t-Toothless, you okay, bud? What's going on?" Hiccup asked her dragon worryingly.

Draven was able to look up enough to see what was happening. "Hiccup... It's no use... Run... Get to safety!" Draven tried to warn. "No, I'm not leaving you two!" Hiccup protested.

"Witness true strength, the strength of will over others. In the face of it, you are nothing!" Drago finished as he grinned devilishly.

Soon, it was over. Toothless stopped fighting as he opened his eyes to reveal hpthat his pupils had almost vanished as they turned to slits. Like the entire dragon swarm, he was now under the command of the Alpha. Turning to Hiccup, Toothless began to stalk his rider with flared wings and a deep growl.

"Ah, what did he just tell you? Toothless, come on. What's the matter with you? No, no, no come on, what are you doing? Knock it off! Stop! Snap out of it!" Hiccup tried to plead with her dragon, but he couldn't hear her. His mind was not his own as he continued to prowl. Seeing his work as done, Drago turned and left.

Stoick meanwhile was closing in. To take a shortcut, he tossed his axe at a nearby crane, cutting it's counterweight and collapsing it over some flaming debris. Running over the makeshift bridge, Stoick drew his sword as he charged to save his daughter.

"Toothless, no! Toothless! Don't!" Hiccup begged with arms raised, pleaded for her best friend to stop trying to hurt her, but it was no use. Taking a breath, Toothless began to charge a plasma shot as his plasma gas began to glow and ooze from his jaws.

"Hiccup, run!" Draven groaned out again as he reached his right arm out to her.

"Hiccup!" Stoick called out as he closed in.

"STOP!" Hiccup pleaded again.

"Hiccup!" Stoick called out again.

Hearing him, Hiccup turned her head to see her father racing towards her. For that one tiny second, time seemed to stop as father and daughter looked each other in the eyes. Hiccup could see only one thing in her father's eyes. Love. A love that will make Stoick do anything, ANYTHING, for his daughter. With that one look, Hiccup could already tell what her father was doing. "DAD! NO!" she cried out in fear. Then it happened.

At the very second when Toothless fired, Stoick pushed his beloved daughter out of the way, taking the full force of Toothless' shot to his chest.

As the smoke cleared, Drago turned to see his work. Hiccup was lying on the ground still alive while Stoick was lying on the ground where Toothless was aiming. Either way, Drago was satisfied.

Fearfully, Hiccup looked back to her father, only to see him on the ground with ice debris on top of him. "No. Dad!" Hiccup cried out as she rushed over to her father's still body. Pushing the ice off of him, Hiccup tried to roll Stoick onto his back.

"Stoick!" Valka called out, also in fear as she helped her daughter roll Stoick over. Placing her ear over Stoick's chest, she prayed with all her heart that she'd still hear a heartbeat. "Dad… no, you…" Hiccup said to herself, praying that it wasn't so.

The other dragons riders and the Wraiths had also landed and surrounded the three Haddocks, praying their chief was still with them. Praying that they hadn't just lost one of the greatest people they knew.

Unfortunately, the gods were not that generous that day. Stoick the Vast, was dead. Pulling her head back, Valka looked over to Hiccup, unsure of what to even say. "No. No, no, no." Hiccup sobbed as she pressed into her father's side, letting her tears flow freely.

Draven's enhanced healing allowed him to regain enough strength to crawl over to Hiccup and place his arm over her, letting a few tears escape himself.

Seeing his work as done, the Alpha tuned and began to march over to the water. As if flicking a light switch, he released Toothless from his control. Snapping out of his trance, the first thing Toothless saw, was the lifeless body of his best friend's father. "Oh no. No no no no, what have I done." Toothless said to himself in a weak voice. Slowly, Toothless moved over to Stoick's body, gently rubbing his hand with his snout. "Stoick, I'm sor-"

"No!" Hiccup yelled in anger as she shoved her dragon away. "Get away from him! Go on, get out of here! Get away!" she shouted, gesturing for Toothless to leave as if she wanted nothing to do with him. Toothless didn't blame her. She was right. He wasn't strong enough to fight the Alpha and the cost of that was the life of his best friend's father. He killed him. It was him fault.

Not wanting to hurt anyone else, Toothless turned and fled. "It's not his fault. You know that." Valka comfortingly said to Hiccup, hoping that she'd see that it was only because Toothless was under the control of the Alpha. It wasn't Toothless who killed Stoick, but the Dark Alpha.

Letting out yet his dominative call once more, the Dark Alpha summoned all dragons in the island to come to his side. The entire swarm, the four Wraiths, Toothless, Violet and the others all took to the sir as they formed around the Bewilderbeast.

All the Berkians couod do was watch helplessly as their dragons flew off to the Alpha, completely unresponsive of their own calls. "Good dragons under the control of bad people... do bad things." Valka thought aloud to herself as she watched the Dark Alpha lead the swarm off.

As Drago took his victory march through the center of what was left of his army, he saw the Night Fury out the corner of his eye repeatedly crash as he tried to fly. Seeing Toothless and an extra prize, he ripped Toothless from the air as the Night Fury flew past him.

Jamming his bull hook on Toothless' neck, Drago kept him pinned down as he mounted him and got to terms with the tail control.

"Come on!" Drago said frustratingly as he tried to get Toothless to listen to him, and with help from the Alpha, he soon did. "Gather the men and meet me at Berk!" Drago ordered his remaining lieutenants.

It was then that Hiccup heard a familiar cry for help. As much as he was being controlled, Toothless was still able to make one final, desperate call for help.

Looking up, Hiccup saw Drago riding Toothless out to sea. "Toothless!" she said in horror as she watched her friend get taken. She knew she was wrong to push him away. She knew ot wasn't his fault and she couldn't see that past her anger. Getting up, she triwd to run after her dragon. She just lost her father and she sure as hell didn't want to lose her best friend forever, but she was stopped by Valka and Draven. "No, don't." Valka said as she clung to her daughter. At this moment, there was just nothing they could do.

Shadow seemed to begin to grip the land and it wasn't because the sun was setting, but because evil had succeeded.

Draven however heard what Drago said. 'Berk? Well, thanks for letting us know where to bury you.' the hybrid quietly thought to himself as he gazed to his right hand and noticed a small gold spark begin to materialise in the center of his palm.

...

What can I say? Sorry? Well, I am sorry that I killed Stoick off like the movie but that's just the thing. I cannot see the movie working without Stoick dying. At the end if the day, Hiccup has to learn to pickup the responsibility chief and the only way he/she can do that is for Stoick to be removed from the picture. I know it's harsh but that's just how it works.

On the more positive note, I left a spoiler for the next chapter. Let's see how many of you can identify it.

See you in a week with the final chapter to Leaders and Alphas.


	8. Chapter 8: Battle of Alphas

Nearly two hours had passed. What was lefts of Drago's forces had already left on the few ships they had remaining, and every dragon was gone.

Draven had at least recovered from his knock from the Dark Alpha, and as much as his powers had become highly unresponsive, he still had his accelerated healing which had been amplified upon killing Drago's hybrid. Despite his luck on that front, he could not care less. After all, Stoick the Vast - Hiccup's father - was dead.

Despite their location and lack of supplies, the group would not let their honoured chief go out in shame. They would make sure that he could enter Valhalla like any great viking should.

Salvaging a single remaining ship that was still mostly intact, the group stacked up a pile of wood and rested Stoick's body atop, covering him with a canvas. The group also salvaged several bows and arrows, lighting them with nearby fires.

While the group got into positions, Draven, Eret and Snotlout gave the ship a shove out to open waters. As the ship sailed out, Gobber decided to say a few last words for his closest friend. "May the Valkyries welcome you and lead you through Odin's great battlefield. May they sing your name with love and fury so that we may hear it rise from the depths of Valhalla and know that you have taken your rightful place at the table of kings. For a great man has fallen, a warrior, a chieftain, a father, a friend." he said, unable to hold his tears. None of the group could, save Draven, who wanted to try to remain strong for his own beloved.

Once Gobber had finished his speech, Hiccup took the bow in her hands and aimed. With a heavy heart, she fired her flaming arrow, landing squarely at the base of the wood stack Stoick's body rested on.

Following suit, everyone else took aim as well, firing and pelting the ship in flaming arrows, sending the ship off in a brightly glowing blazing fury into the mist.

Dropping her bow, Hiccup let out a deep breath as more tears flowed. "I'm sorry, Dad." She said. Everyone else more or less did the same. The twins comforted each other whilst Fishlegs just kept to himself. Snotlout surprisingly did actually cry, but still tried to hide his tears. Even Eret who didn't know Stoick at all felt emotional. He recognised that Stoick was an honorable man and he had grown attached to the gang, making the loss of their chief and impact on him as well.

Eventually, Hiccup felt that she had to say something, being the heir to the throne and such. "I'm not the chief that you wanted me to be, and I'm not the peace keeper I thought I was either. I don't know…" she said, stuttering towards the end as she began to feel overwhelmed.

Valka then stepped closer to her daughter and put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "You came early into this world, you were such a wee thing. So frail, so fragile, I feared you wouldn't make it. But your father, he never doubted, he always said you would become the strongest of them all… And he was right." She comfortingly said. Grabbing both of Hiccup's shoulders and looking her daughter in her eyes, Valka continued "You have the heart of a chief and the soul of a dragon, only you can bring our worlds together. That is who you are, my daughter."

Stepping back, Hiccup moved closer to waters as she began to contemplate leadership now that her father was gone. She began to think of the kind of leader her father was and it frightened her. Why? Because of how great a leader he was. "I, ah... I was so afraid of becoming my dad, mostly because I thought I never could. How do you become someone that great, that brave, that selfless? I guess you can only try…" she said, still feeling overwhelmed by the idea.

Draven meanwhile had secretly been keeping a message, and thought now was the time to say it. Moving next to Hiccup, he comfortingly said to her whilst gazing out to the burning ship "Ya know a few weeks back, Stoick asked me to tell you something when the time came."

Hearing this, Hiccup looked up to Draven, wondering what it was her father had told her partner. "This is what he said to me: "Draven. I won't be around forever, and I know that with Hiccup as my daughter, she would have to inherent the title of the throne. I know she may think that a difficult task, thinking she'd be unworthy to lead our people. Well I want you to tell her this. Tell her that she shouldn't feel burdened to try to live up to my legacy. Tell her to live up to her own, so she can surpass that of mine." Your father believed that you were already a far greater leader than he could ever be, and he gave his final breath still believing in that idea."

For several moments, Hiccup let those words swirl in her mind, until it was time. Wiping away her tears and composing herself, she turned to face the gang. "A chief protects their own. We're going back." Hiccup said confidently, with the voice of a leader.

"Uh, with what?" Tuffnut asked confusedly.

"Drago took all the dragons." Ruffnut clarified.

With a wide grin forming on both Hiccup's and Draven's lips, the hybrid replied "Not all of them."

...

Deep inside the vast ice cave network of the dragon sanctuary, the gang had acquired several Scuttleclaws. all ten members of the gang were blazing through the tunnels, trying to find an exit and get back to Berk. The only issue, was the Scuttleclaws themselves. Being children, it made them near impossible to ride as they couldn't hold a straight line, and didn't fully approve of the occupants on their backs.

"FLY STRAIGHT, WILL YA?!" Ruffnut frustratingly yelled at her dragon.

"I don't want to die!" Fishlegs whimpered, terrified for his life as his dragon continually flew haphazardly.

"We can't fly these things!" Tuffnut complained, sharing his frustration.

"Yeah, no kidding!" Fishlegs said, just as he dragon plowed straight into the side of the cave and through a pile of snow on a ledge.

Back with the more experienced riders, being Hiccup, Valka, Draven and Andor, their dragons were relatively behaved as they led the group. As they flew, something began to bother Andor. "But won't that Bewilderbeast take control of these guys too?" he asked Hiccup in a concerned manner.

"They're babies, they don't listen to anyone!" Hiccup reassured, having faith in her plan to get her reptilian friend back and save Berk.

"Yeah, just like us." Tuffnut commented, comparing he and his sister to the infant dragons, not actually realising it himself.

Meanwhile, Gobber's dragon was flying highly erratic. It may have had something to do with the fact that he had a 100 kilogram man riding him. Repeatedly, Gobber's dragon flew into the side of the cave as he tried to adjust to the weight of the person on his back. "This is very dangerous." Gobber said while his dragon continually crashed. "Some might suggest this is poorly conceived."

"Well it's a good thing that I never listen." Hiccup jokingly replied, actually thinking back on the last few days. It was only because of her stubbornness that she found her mother.

As the group ventured further, Gobber managed to get his dragons to listen somewhat as he pulled along side Hiccup. "What is your plan?" the smith asked his former apprentice.

Draven then spoke up. "Well don't expect too much from me. My powers are still not responding and the only glow I'm getting is a gold spark in my palm. Basically I'm a normal human with a deformed right arm." he said, feeling somewhat helpless on that fact. Regardless, it wouldn't stop him. "So we do what we do best. Improvisation." the hybrid finished.

So to give the short and sweet version of whatever plan they were cooking up, Hiccup answered Gobber. "Get Toothless back and Kick Drago's butt!"

...

Several hours later.

It was the early hours in the morning at Berk. Villagers all around began to wake and prepare for their daily activities. Little did they know, a dark presence was approaching them, destroying the statues in the sea as it turned towards the village.

Back on land, most people were indoors, either in their homes or the great hall. One such viking was in his home giving his Gronckle his morning belly scratch. "Ah, that's a good boy."

The Boulder class dragon was purring loudly as he lay on his side and kicked his back legs, until he began to hear a ominous and commanding call resonate through the air. With his wide and happy eyes changing into slits. "Must...obey." the Gronckle said as he lost the last of his freewill.

Getting up, the Gronckle beat his wings as he tried to make his way outside. "Watch the furniture. Where are you going?" the viking asked confusedly as he watched his dragon knock over several chairs and barge his way outside.

Chasing after his dragon, the viking stopped dead in his tracks when he reached his door. Looking outside, he and ever viking on Berk watched in confusion and shock as their dragons swarmed into the sky, joining an even bigger swarm swirling over the sea. The swarm however was the least of their concerns.

In front of the swarm, a giant dark grey dragon head raised out of the sea. Beside the head was Toothless with an unknown man atop him. "Your chief is dead!" Drago yelled out to the Berkians, taking pleasure out of the looks of horror on everyone's faces. "No one can protect you now!"

Rearing his head back, the Dark Alpha fired almost his entire ice reserve on the village of Berk.

...

Out to see, ten Scuttleclaws with their riders raced to Berk as fast as their wings could carry them. Upon arriving however, all riders felt their hearts sink. Drago, his Bewilderbeast and the dragon swarm had already arrived, and the Dark Alpha was laying siege. Over half of the village had been frozen and flattened. "No…" Hiccup said in horror. "He took all the dragons!" Fishlegs added, seeing that the swarm was clearly bigger with Berk's dragons added to it.

Hiccup and Draven meanwhile began to feel a rage burn within them. First Drago takes Hiccup's dragon, uses him to kill her father and now rides him while his pet monster destroys their home. "Distract the alpha! Keep his focus off of Toothless!" Hiccup ordered as the group made their final approach.

"Ah, how?" Tuffnut asked, wondering how they were going to get the attention of a dragon that big. Trying to sound encouraging and helpful, Eret shouted out "Have forgotten who you're riding with? There isn't a dragon alive that I can't wrangle…" until his Scuttleclaw began to weave and buck, throwing him off balance "Except this one!" he screamed as his dragon spiraled.

"Amateur." Snotlout snickered.

Back in the village, the villagers had scattered and were hiding where ever they could, feeling absolutely helpless, until they spotted the incoming flight of dragons. "Hey look it's Hiccup!" Spitelout called out in relief.

"What?" Drago yelled out in frustration. It was like no matter what he did, the Berkian dragon riders would persist. Even now when they should have lost all hope, losing Stoick and their dragons, they still persisted.

As the group reached the village, they too scattered. Hiccup moved behind the closest building she could find to Toothless, waiting for an opportunity. Fishlegs landed close to the racing horn. Draven and Valka landed in the streets where Draven began to try and revive his powers. The great of the group landed by one of the grassy Knowles where the sheep-launcher was kept.

While they quickly tried to scrounge for sheep, Draven focused as hard as he could on his dragon hand, trying to draw out his power. Focusing hard enough, his plasma has began to secrete from the glands in his wrist into his palm. Unfortunately, his Fireworm ability was still out of commission, and he couldn't ignite the gas. "How are you going to shoot?" Valka asked concerned. Grabbing a nearby lit torch, Draven answered "Improvisation."

Breaking cover, he concentrated the gas into a dense ball and threw it at the Dark Alpha, passing through the torch and lighting it. The fireball made contact on the Bewilderbeast, but the colossal dragon barely noticed it. The explosion was tiny and probably wouldn't have even killed a person. At the moment, all that mattered was a distraction.

With Draven's improvised attack, he managed to by the others the time they needed. Before the Alpha could react to Draven, a sheep leapt up from nowhere and hit him in the face.

"Keep 'em coming!" Ruffnut said to the boys as they prepared another sheep at the Alpha. Hiccup was starting to see her chance. Slowly, she and her Scuttleclaw began to inch their way closer to the Night Fury.

"Black Sheep, baby!" Snotlout said as he passed Ruffnut the sheep worth ten points.

The Dark Alpha meanwhile was none to pleased. "Hmph, pests." he muttered as he readied another ice blast, but just as he was about to fire on the gang, he heard a loud bellow come from the side by where the horn was. Glancing over there, he same it was unoccupied. "Huh?"

Just as he turned back to the group, he was hit by another sheep. The black sheep his his face and bounced down several times before getting caught on the Bewilderbeast's lip.

"Ten points! Ha!" Snotlout cheered, until the Alpha looked down to them and reared his head back. "Uh-oh..."

But just as he was about to fire, the horn went off again. It didn't take long for the Dark Alpha to realise what was happening. "You think to make a fool of me!?" he growled deeply.

Fishlegs meanwhile was snickering behind the horn, when he noticed the Dark Alpha open his giant jaws. With one blast of ice, he utterly destroyed the horn. "I'm okay!" Fishlegs called out.

Things so far were going sour. Draven could only fire the one shot and the shot did absolutely nothing. The sheep crew had to pull back lest they get attacked, the Dark Alpha had noticed Hiccup approaching Toothless.

"You certainly are hard to get rid of, I'll say that." Drago plainly said to Hiccup as she got closer to her dragon. His Alpha meanwhile had kept up under them, keeping a fixated gaze on Toothless.

Slowly, Hiccup got closer to her best friend while extending her palm. "Toothless. Hey, it's me bud. It's me, it's me, I'm right here bud. Come back to me." she pleaded, but all Toothless could hear and see was muffled sounds and blurry images.

"Ha-ha, he's not yours anymore." Drago cackled atop Toothless. "He belongs to the alpha, but please, oh great dragon master, try to take him. He will not miss a second time."

"It wasn't your fault bud, they made you do it." Hiccup soothingly said as she got closer. Within, Toothless began to hear the voice of his rider and best friend. His eyes began to twitch as they jumped back and forth between slits and orbs. "You'd never hurt him, you'd never hurt me."

Drago meanwhile was watching the entire thing in shock, confusion, and a tiny level of awe. "How are you doing that?"

"Please, you are my best friend." Hiccup pleaded again, placing her hand on her Night Fury's snout. "My best friend."

That was it. Toothless shut his eyes hard one last time, to open them up and reveal large friendly orbs. "Hiccup? You...came back." Toothless said with a deep purr and a smile. He had finally broken the Alpha's control

"That'a boy, that's it! I'm here!" Hiccup said, reassuring her dragon that he would be okay. Drago meanwhile was none to pleased. How dare this girl show up and take a dragon away from him by simply touching it's snout and speaking softly and soothingly to it as if it was a gentle pet. "No!" he cried out, hitting Toothless on the side of his head with his bull hook to get him back under control. When he tried to do it again however, Toothless caught the spear in his mouth and pulled hard, ripping Drago from the saddle.

"Yeah-ha!" Hiccup and Toothless cheered in unison, pleased beyond measure that they had each other back. Only one small problem was left. Nobody was riding Toothless and his tail was closed.

Plummeting to the sea, Hiccup leapt off of her Scuttleclaw after her Night Fury with the sun beginning to rise. "Hang on! Almost there buddy, almost there." Hiccup said like a mantra, overtaking Drago who had landed on his Bewilderbeasts tusk.

As the sea got closer and closer, Hiccup eventually reached Toothless, quickly mounting him and opening his fin. Flaring his won wings, Toothless pulled up hard, narrowly skimming the surface of the water.

"Do something!" Drago yelled to his Alpha in burning anger. Doing as his master said, the Dark Alpha fired an ice blast at Toothless, taking out several building while also using his frequency call of his antenna.

The Night Fury however was much to fast for the Alpha to aim, and quickly put some distance into him. Toothless meanwhile snarled deeply as he felt the Alpha's call again. "We need to get those two apart." Hiccup said as she planned a strategy.

Flying over the bridge at the back of the village that led to the woods, Hiccup ripped a flag off and quickly began folding it. "Got to block them out, Toothless. Do you trust me bud?" she said soothingly as she placed the flag over Toothless' eyes as a blindfold. "Of course I do. Where you go, I go." Toothless replied as he was blindfolded.

"We can do this. You and me… As one." Hiccup said, placing her hand over Toothless snout one last time. "That's it, now lets try this one more time!"

Turning towards the Alpha, Hiccup and Toothless went I to an attack run and breakneck speeds, blazing past everyone in the village who all watched with great anticipation.

"Take 'em down, babe!" Draven cheered as she flew by, when suddenly he felt something stir. His right arm began to tingle and get hotter. Looking down to it, he saw it began to glow intensely with a bright gold. Simply smirking, he began to speed through the village in a cloud of smoke.

While all that was happening, Hiccup and Toothless were on their final approach. "Go get 'em." Valka whispered, smiling proudly at her daughter.

Drago was actually beginning to grow nervous with the inbound Striker. "Take control of it!" he ordered his pet. The Bewilderbeast did so but just as with Draven, something was different and wrong when he tried to get inside Toothless' head.

"Shut it out, Toothless!" Hiccup said to her dragon, covering his ears for good measure.

Drago knew now it was a losing fight to try get the Night Fury back, and figured it would be better off to simply get rid of them. After all, they were still coming closer. "Stop them!"

That was the signal for Hiccup. "NOW!" she alerted her dragon as she locked his tail. At the same moment the Dark Alpha fired his ice blast, Toothless pulled up hard, avoiding the ice and passing over Drago into a steep climb.

Seeing their attempted attack as completely pointless, Drago cackled as he watched Toothless pull back, only to notice something wrong. Hiccup wasn't with him. Where was she? Quickly scanning all around, he spotted Hiccup FLYING towards him with her wing suit deployed.

With her sword, Hiccup hit the great button and sprayed the Zippleback gas, completely engulfing Drago in it as she passed him. Getting clear, she spark the gas, detonating of and throwing Drago off his dragon.

The blast was also enough that the Alpha turned as he tried to regain his bearing, placing his gargantuan tail right in Hiccup's gliding path. "Not again. Toothless, it's now or never!"

Toothless turned towards his rider and saw her predicament. "This time! This time!" he chanted, opening his spinal flaps, increasing his maneuverability. Quickly catching Hiccup, he pulled up hard, dodging the tail spines of the Alpha until they were home free.

"Yeah-ha! We did it!" Hiccup cheered, patting Toothless on his cheek.

Down on the group, Drago had recovered from his fall. Staggering on all fours, IE tried to crawl over to his staff which was pegged in the ground. But just as he was a meter from it, Toothless swooped past and landed in front of him. Quickly dismounting, Hiccup drew her blade, Inferno, and tossed it and Drago. Only instead of one blade blocking Drago's path, two blades did, the second blade being Draven's katana, Harvest. Looking left, Hiccup saw Draven standing several ,enters off with his arm glowing gold. Giving each other a reassured nod, Hiccup and Draven turned back to Drago.

"Hold him there Toothless." Hiccup said to her dragon, who was just about ready to pounce. "It's all over now, Drago."

For a moment, Drago actually seemed as though he was about to surrender, but only for a moment, for behind Hiccup, the Dark Alpha was getting closer. "Or is it?" Drago said with a devilish smile.

Turning around, Toothless, Hiccup and Raven all saw the Dark Alpha, who in turn was staring directly at Hiccup and rearing it's head back. "Oh no!" Hiccup muttered as she took a step back.

With a single blast, the Dark Alpha buried Hiccup in several tonnes of ice, but not before a shadow and a cloud of smoke could reach her.

Fearing the worst, Valka rushed over to the ice formation, trembling at what she saw. "No! No! Hiccup!" she whimpered as she repeatedly hit the ice with her fist. Had she just lost her daughter? Had her entire family been destroyed by the same dragon in just a few hours? All Valka could do was cry as she leaned into the ice, thinking her daughter was dead. Or was she?

From within the ice, an intense glow of blue and gold began to emanate from the center, with the ice beginning to steam and liquefy on it's outside. In seconds, the ice began to vibrate as the air resonated with the sounds of a high pitched Night Fury whistle, and the strange, menacing whispers of a Wraith.

Valka quickly backed away from the ice and not a moment too soon, for the ice soon shattered into dust from a powerful explosion that came from it's center.

Soon the dust settled to reveal two glowing figures protectively covering the girl between them. Toothless' entire spine was glowing a bright blue, with some of the glow even coming out of his mouth. Draven was back in his Pyro-Typhon form, only it was almost entirely different. His armour was still black but his skin had turned a luminous gold. Both his wings had split in two, with his two inner wings glowing brightly, while his two outer wings had turned black, essentially becoming shields with razor edges. His horns and carapace had also changed from silver to black as well, and he also grew a second carapace out from the back of his neck, forming up behind his head, giving him a more regal appearance. Draven had also lost the tendril-whip on his right arm and had finally grown his tail. It extended nearly three and a half meters out from the base of his spine and had a large hooked claw on it's end. Lastly, just to put the cherry on the cake, he truly had gained solar immunity. Just like the Alpha Wraith he met a few days ago, the sun no longer hurt him.

As they stood back up, Toothless and Draven both immediately turned to the Dark Alpha, letting out deafening and threatening roars to their rival. "What's happening?" Hiccup asked, completely stumped as to what she was looking at.

Taking a moment, Draven quickly examined himself and Toothless. "Titan wings." he uttered with a wide grin forming on his face. "Alpha Titan wings." he said again, but this time with more of a growl as he glared over to Drago. "And if there's one thing Alpha's do; it's challenge other Alphas." he finished, looking back over to the Dark Alpha.

"Payback time." Toothless said as he flared his wings, ready for battle. "Let's take this monster down!"

"Ha, thought you'd never ask." Draven responded with a snicker, tightening his knuckles. Leaping into the air and landing on two ice shards pointing at the Dark Alpha, Toothless and Draven roared yet again as they began charging their shots, with Draven's arms lighting on fire. "They're challenging the Alpha!" Hiccup said in awe. "To protect you!" Valka added.

In unison, Toothless and Draven fired together, hitting the Bewilderbeast with shot after shot, staggering him with every hit, making their shots stronger and stronger with every passing second.

With the unrelenting stream of plasma shots, the Dark Alpha could barely even see his challengers. Swinging his tusks aimlessly, the Alpha tried to hit his enemies and take them out, but missed by miles as Toothless and Draven jumped off of the ice shards.

Landing back on the ground, Draven noticed that the Alpha's antenna were still vibrating. "Aim between his eyes!" the Alpha hybrid cried out. Taking aim, he and Toothless fired again, blasting the Bewilderbeast's antenna right off his head.

With his ability to control taken out, the entire Drago swarm began to snap out of their trance. Upon waking the first thing every dragon saw, was Toothless and the Alpha Pyro-Typhon battling the Dark Bewilderbeast. In an instant, the whole swarm began to move towards the Bewilderbeast's challengers and take up positions behind them. "No, no, no, no. NO! Fight back! Fight back! " Drago screamed out in fairy as he grabbed his staff and mounted his Alpha's tusk. "What's the matter with you?!" he screamed again, when he noticed no more dragons we're behind his own one. Slowly turning around, he saw in horror as the entire dragon swarm had teamed up with Toothless and Draven. Now it was time to finish it. Hiccup mounted Toothless, whereby Toothless and Draven moved back up to another ice shard, heading the swarm.

"Now do you get it? This is what it is to earn a dragon's loyalty." Hiccup said to Drago, gesturing to the swarm. All she had been trying to tell him that to truly control dragons, you need to show them respect. Show them that you are not the enemy, and Hiccup and Draven had just earned an entire swarm because of that. "Let this end now."

Drago was beyond furious. How could he be made such a fool of by a 20 year old girl, and a 21 year old hybrid. As far as he knew, dragon were monsters, and could be made friends out of. As far as he knew, to 'befriend' a monster, you had to be a monster. "Never! Come on!"

"Ready!" Toothless and Draven commanded to the swarm, who only responded in kind by preparing to fire on the beast that oppressed them. To this point, Draven was only using his plasma shots, but now it was time to ramp it up. Extending his outer wings, several arcs of electricity began to spark.

"FIRE!"

With that word, Toothless fired another plasma bolt while Draven fired a lightning bolt, followed by the entire swarm releasing an unrelenting barrage of fireballs at the Dark Alpha. Drago had to dodge led and right as he retreated behind on of his Alpha's horns for cover.

"FIGHT!" he screamed to his dragon, but their was nothing the Bewilderbeast could do. The intensity of the assault was so heavy that all he could do was stagger back in huge amounts of pain. "Burn." Draven quietly said as he watched the onslaught.

Eventually, the swarm began to run out of shots and their attack began to cease, but not before blowing Drago's prosthetic arm off into dust. "ENOUGH!" the Bewilderbeast cried out in pain, rearing his whole body back in one last ditch attempt to fight back. "Try it!" Draven sarcastically mocked, as he and Toothless had anticipated this.

As the Bewilderbeast came forward for his attack, Toothless and Draven put everything they had I to their own attack's as well. In unison, Toothless' spine's glow momentarily intensified as he fired a supercharged plasma shot, while Draven channeled his lighting into his arms and fired off a single high power, plasma infused bolt of lightning.

Toothless' shot hit directly on the Dark Alpha's left tusk, blowing it off, while Draven's shot nailed the Dark Alpha squarely in his right eye, incinerating it and charring the skin around the point of impact.

Screaming in pain, the Dark Alpha backed away, actually afraid of what Toothless and Draven would do next. "THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE! LEAVE NOW OR DIE!" Toothless roared out.

Surprise that the two were sparing him, the Bewilderbeast decided on what to do. "Thank you." he said, bowing his head to the Striker and Fear class as he back down. Seeing Drago one last time, Hiccup decided to say one last thing to him. One last thing to show him the error of his ways. "The Alpha protects them all!" With that, the Bewilderbeast backed off and dove into the ocean, swimming away as fast as his legs and wings could take him.

With their enemy gone, Toothless and Hiccup joined the rest of the gathering villagers down in the village plaza, while Draven stayed on the ice platform a moment longer. Looking down to his hand, he willed his body to change back to human. Shrouding himself in his smoke, his body did revert but not in a way he was expecting. When he turned back into a human, he was truly, 100% human. His right hand was no longer in a changed, scaly state, and his eyes and changed back to dark brown. Smiling at his ascension, Draven joined the massing group of cheering vikings.

All around, vikings and dragons were cheering, until Hiccup and Toothless joined the fray. All around, dragons began to surround Toothless, headed by Cloudjumper. "You are our Alpha now Toothless, and we will follow you anywhere." Cloudjumper said. With those words all dragons bowed down to their new Alpha. "Thank you." Toothless said, giving off a victory roar to the sky, with all other dragons joining in.

Feeling a presence at his side, Toothless turned to see his best friend and rider. "You never cease to amaze me, bud. Thank you." Hiccup said, rubber her head on Toothless' snout, who in turn purred deeply.

After a few seconds, he broke out of her arms and playfully began licking her again. "Oh, Toothless, you know that doesn't wash out!" she yelled back with a laugh as she tried to stand up.

While Hiccup got back up, her people were reunited with their dragons. Andor with Stormfly, Draven with Violet, Fishlegs with Meatlug, Snotlout with Hookfang, and the twins with Barf and Belch. Even Gobber with Grump, despite the amount of times he yelled a this lazy dragon. "Oh, give me a cuddle, Grumpy!" Gobber lovingly said to his dragon, glad that his dragon was back. Though despite being glad as well, Grump was still the lazy type, and returned Gobber's 'hug' by simply lying down on top of him.

While Hiccup was watching this, Skullcrusher came up next to her, sad that his own rider was gone but also glad he still had Hiccup. Gently, Hiccup rubbed Skullcrusher's snout, when Eret approached her. "That was some pretty fine dragon wrangling back there. You'd make a good trapper." he jokingly commented.

Despite what he was like when they first met, Hiccup could see that Eret was indeed an honorable man, and she could even call him a friend. Then she had an idea. "You know, Skullcrusher is going to need someone to look after him now." she said, implying Eret.

"Me?" Eret asked surprised, earning a nod for Hiccup. "I'd be honored."

As Hiccup left Eret and Skullcrusher to bond, her mother then came up to her. Hugging each other tightly, Valka said to her daughter. "Your father, he'd be every bit as proud as I am."

"Thank you, I'm really glad you're here mom." Hiccup replied as they separated from their hug. "And here I'll stay." Valka said back.

All around, Hiccup saw her people reuniting with their dragons, and even the dragons of the sanctuary befriending the vikings. Soon however, her eyes came upon one person who was walking over to her. She saw how his right hand was back to a normal human state while his eyes had changed back to dark brown, just like they had been ten years ago. "See? I told you it was in here." Draven said, placing a hand over Hiccup's heart.

Smiling at what he said, the two gazed into each other's eyes once again, until Draven playfully hit the button to Hiccup's tail fin. "Ah-ha, still doing that one. That's hilarious." Hiccup sarcastically laughed, eventually just looking back into Draven's eyes and pulling him close to savour their moment. "Come here you."

Wrapping their arms around each other, Hiccup and Draven pulled each other into a deep and passionate kiss, tuning out all other surrounding sounds as the only thing that mattered in their lives was the other person in their arms.

Separating from their kiss, Hiccup felt a gentle tap on her side. Turning around, Hiccup saw it was Gothi. She knew what she wanted. Kneeling down, Gothi used some nearby charcoal in sketch the symbol of the chief on Hiccup's forehead.

Once Hiccup stood back up, Gobber bellowed out to the crowd "The Chief has come home!" With those words, the entire island broke out into a chant. "Long live the Chief! Long live the Chief! Long live the Chief! Long live the Chief!"

Everything worked out. Hiccup was now the leaded of her people, Toothless was now the leader of the dragons, and Draven was now the leader of the Wraiths who were glad to have an Alpha they could follow who respected them as well.

...

This is Berk. A bit trampled, busted and covered in ice, but it's home. It's their home. Those who attacked them were relentless and crazy. But those who stopped them, oh, even more so! They may be small in numbers, but they stand for something bigger than anything the world can pit against them. They are the voice of peace, and bit by bit, they will change the world. You see, they have something their enemies don't. Oh, sure, their enemies have armies, and they have armadas... but Berkians... Berkians have... Their Dragons.


End file.
